Are GP premises leases "off-putting"?

A GP Partnership Review was published in 2019. The review found that GPs had considered the personal financial risk of owning or leasing their GP surgery was a major reason why they were leaving or choosing not to join partnerships.

The General Practice Premises Policy Review.

The General Practice Premises Policy Review was led by NHS England and published following the GP Partnership Review. It was conducted to understand the issues which impact GP properties and aimed to identify “barriers to effective service delivery” including those concerns highlighted in relation to leases.

Having considered that the requirement to take on a long lease can be “off-putting” for GPs, the General Practice Premises Policy Review have considered whether existing leases, which prevent “healthy renewal of partnerships”, could be assigned from the GP leaseholders to “NHS bodies or other appropriate entities”.

If the lease was assigned, however, the NHS body and not the GPs would be the party entitled to occupy the premises. Therefore, the GPs would still need a mechanism whereby they can occupy the property. 

The Review suggested that if the lease is assigned, a shorter-term underlease would need to be entered into with the NHS body and the GP partnership. 

The GPs would then need to comply with obligations which could include ensuring that the property is appropriately maintained. Therefore, GP partnerships would still retain some liability in respect of the property which could still be off-putting.

The Review goes on to state that the assignment of the existing lease to an NHS body would be offered as a “last resort”, only if the property was “identified as having ongoing importance for the delivery of services”.

The Review concludes that discussions in respect of this recommendation are ongoing.