Data-sharing dispute fears resurface

A GP who won a significant legal challenge, with the aid of the BMA, has expressed concern his legal dispute with his ICB (integrated care board) around patient data sharing could reignite.

London GP principal Sashi Shashikanth has spoken of his fear that a dispute surrounding his refusal to share non-clinical information with PCNs (primary care networks) in his local area could once again bring him into conflict with the North West London ICB.

Dr Shashikanth was embroiled in long-running dispute, which began in 2019 when the-then NHS Hillingdon CCG (clinical commissioning group) sought to terminate the GMS contracts held by two of his practices in September 2020, a decision later upheld by NHS Resolution.

In a subsequent legal challenge supported by the BMA, the Court of Appeal ruled that GP practices have the right to seek judicial reviews of decisions taken by NHS Resolution.

Following the judgment, the North West London ICB wrote to Dr Shashikanth on 6 March advising that the termination notices for his practices, the West London Medical Centre and Church Road Surgery, were being withdrawn.

In a subsequent email dated 11 March, the ICB advised it would be applying variations to the GMS contracts to the two practices.

These GMS contract variation notices, which are back dated to between April 2015 and August 2024 and which took effect from yesterday, have been questioned by the manager of the practices, Yvonne Blowfield.

In an email seen by The Doctor, she said: ‘We note that between them the 2019 and 2020 variations introduce clauses, which were relevant in the previous dispute – in relation to cooperation with the PCNs and the requirement to share information about our list.

‘The variations may well be a prelude to you resurrecting the dispute about information sharing with the PCNs.

‘We would like to reiterate that refusal to allow us to provide PCN services to our own patients is discriminatory given NHSE’s approach elsewhere in England facilitating local contracts to non-PCN and non-data sharing practices like ourselves to offer enhanced/PCN services to own patients without threat of termination or costly legal battles.’

In response, the ICB advised the variations it had outlined were being ‘applied to all practice contracts in north-west London’.

The notices of contract variation are the latest developments in a long-running case which began when in 2019 Dr Shashikanth declined an invitation for his practices to join the local PCN.

He has consistently argued that attempts to terminate his contracts had been unfair given other GP practices in England with reservations about PCNs had been able to reach agreements with their ICBs.

Earlier this year, Dr Shashikanth’s MP – independent MP for Hayes and Harlington John McDonnell – wrote to health secretary Wes Streeting urging him to liaise with NHS England about reinstating the GMS contracts while also calling for ‘a full examination of this case to ensure other GPs are not put in a similar position’.