CCG chairs step down due to 'increased workload'

Two CCG chairs have stepped down from their posts less than four months after officially taking over from PCTs.

Dr Helen Tattersfield and Dr Tony Banerjee said that the increased practice workload as a result of the GP contract have stopped them from continuing.

Tattersfield, former chair of Lewisham CCG was recently in the press for the government’s decision to downgrade the local hospital, which was recently overturned by the High Court.

Two CCG chairs have stepped down from their posts less than four months after officially taking over from PCTs.

Dr Helen Tattersfield and Dr Tony Banerjee said that the increased practice workload as a result of the GP contract have stopped them from continuing.

Tattersfield, former chair of Lewisham CCG was recently in the press for the government’s decision to downgrade the local hospital, which was recently overturned by the High Court.

She said: “Because of the changes in the primary care contracting, there has been a lot of uncertainty about payment and claiming it, so [as a practice] we have had to concentrate to make sure things would happen, compared with the past when you knew the money you were getting.

“There is extra QOF and it all requires a lot more attention so it was difficult to balance those things.”

Banerjee stepped down on 2 August because there had been “increasing pressures on both roles”.

He said: “The practice is getting increasingly busy… I just don’t have the time to do both, and I am a GP first and foremost.”