As many as 150 GPs will face a large-scale redundancy consultation at eMed, the owner of GP at Hand, Pulse reported this week.
A spokesperson told Pulse: ‘eMed has reviewed its UK business operations and as a result will commence a process of collective redundancy consultation because we are proposing to right-size our private clinician workforce. This affects a range of private clinicians and not just GPs.’
The consultation is expected to conclude in August.
One anonymous GP told Pulse: “Last week me and many of my GP colleagues were told we were going to be made redundant or at risk of redundancy by eMed… No one is able to do anything and everyone feels a bit helpless.”
Online service GP at Hand is the UK’s largest single GP practice, established by Babylon and registering more than 100,000 patients in 2022. The same year, the operation pulled out of Birmingham. Babylon sold its UK business to eMed last year.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse commented at the time: “Babylon… has its work cut out to convince GPs in its employ that it remains a service with a future.”
Speaking on the news of redundancy today, Dr Fieldhouse, chair of NASGP, said: “Many GP locums across the UK are already deeply unsettled by a steep drop in adverts for both salaried and GP locum posts, so the timing of this is not going to help alleviate any of their anxiety.
“The landscape for sessional GPs has always had its peaks and troughs, and this one we’re in at the moment is particularly deep and long for many of us. As the membership support organisation for sessional GPs, we’re here to help in any way we can, and have built LocumDeck so that it offers the best chance for GPs to connect with practices and get booked directly.”