GP Practice case studies
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Case Study 1  - Partnership Dispute
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Dr John Cook, Dr Gita Varma, Dr Alexa Cole and Dr Ben Enwonwu are a GP partnership based in York. Drs Cook, Varma and  Enwonwu  have fallen out with Dr Cole because they think she is lazy. She always has patients queuing all over the surgery and seems to over-run her appointments resulting in poor patient surveys. She often comes in late. The partners decide to expel Dr Cole from the partnership and during the partners meeting Dr Cole sends a letter stating that she is sorry that she is late and overruns but considers herself disabled with clinical depression. Dr Cook says that you cannot be a GP with depression and the partners decide to expel Dr Cole.                                                                                                                                                                            

How we can help?
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• We can assist the partnership with issues surrounding Dr Cole's expulsion
• We  can act for the partnership in the Employment Tribunal defending the claim brought by Dr Cole in the Employment Tribunal for disability discrimination.
• We could also help you to resolve the dispute by negotiating with Dr Cole to return
• We can help the partners to put in place reasonable adjustments to enable Dr Cole to continue to work for the practice.​                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Case Study 2 - Employment Claim Against the Practice
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Dr Suman Marthur, Dr Vinay Patel and Dr Aaron Mehmood are very busy doctors and have employed Jo King as their practice manager. The partners are happy with Mrs King and she does everything from managing the premises to recruiting staff. In March, Dr Patel decides to ask his brother to help with the practice accounts and the partners find that Mrs King has been paying herself large amounts of over-time without authority.
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how we can help?

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• We can give the partners step by step advice on how to investigate the potential misconduct by their practice manager, even drafting questions to ask at the investigatory hearing.
• We can look at the evidence, help the partners to call a disciplinary hearing, draft a script for use at the hearing
• Where necessary, draft the dismissal letter for Mrs King. We can also defend any Employment Tribunal claim brought by Mrs King​                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Case Study 3 - Recruiting salaried GPs

Dr David Cohen, Dr Jonathan Stern and Dr Mary Blackwell are partners at a GP practice. They decide to offer employment to Dr Isobel Jones. The partners provide Dr Jones with a contract which is checked by the BMA contract checking service who say that the contract is badly drafted and does not give Dr Jones sufficient employment rights or comply with the BMA model contract for salaried GPs. The partners are concerned by Dr Jones attitude towards them during the recruitment process through the negotiations and wish to withdraw her offer of employment. Dr Jones said that if they withdraw the offer, she will sue them in the Employment Tribunal and civil courts.
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how we can help?

•  We can provide advice to the partners on how to withdraw the offer, to include drafting all correspondence with Dr Jones.
• When the partners are ready to recruit a new salaried GP, we can provide a contract that protects the practice more than the BMA model but which has no less favourable terms than the BMA's model. ​​                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Case Study 4 - Proposed Practice Merger
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The Ashton Court Surgery is a GMS practice in Bristol has lost four out of its six partners in the past 2 years and the partners decide that it will merge with another local practice to become a six partner surgery over two sites. The partners decide that after the merger there will only be a need for one practice manager and that the other practice manager will be redundant. One of the practice managers drafted her own contract which refers to an Agenda for Change redundancy payment. Some of the staff have been mentioning that there has not been a lot of consultation and that they will be applying for 13 weeks pay as a protective award.
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HOW CAN WE HELP?

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• We can help Ashton Court Surgery and will advise on the merger, how to consult with staff and draft a script for use at the consultation meetings.
• We can check the contract of employment of the practice manager and check any redundancy entitlement and advise whether redundancy can be avoided. We can advise on the potential TUPE transfer and the effects on staff. We can advise on the transfer of the GMS contract. ​​