Thamesdoc

A Brief History Of Thamesdoc

Thamesdoc was launched on 1st July 1993 by GPs in Surrey when it was becoming obvious that the out-of-hours’ burden for Doctors was becoming onerous. Initial membership across the area totalled 111 GPs with a Medical Management Committee of six Doctors to oversee management and clinical issues. By September of that year we were joined by a group of 50 Doctors around the Guildford area and at this point we had become one of the largest co-operatives in the country. This achievement was made all the more impressive as we did not receive any financial support from the Surrey nor Kingston & Richmond FHSAs, unlike other areas, and we had to grow rapidly to secure economies of scale in order to be viable. At the end of the first year we had broken even financially.

For the following 10 years we worked as a traditional GP Co-operative, with our GP members doing shifts, and we went from strength to strength. However, a few years’ ago, it was obvious that most GPs were wishing to absolve themselves of any out-of-hours’ work because there was so much more call upon their in-hours’ work as a result of GP contracts, targets, etc. It was clear to us that the Government was looking at removing out-of-hours’ work from the GP terms of service and we decided to be pro-active. We brought in a scheme whereby GPs could devolve their responsibility for out-of-hours to us well in advance of any Government pronouncements. This proved to be very popular with our GPs and quickly spread over our whole area.

Thamesdoc now covers the whole of Surrey and parts of West Sussex and Hampshire, and employs some 166 administrative staff. We also contract with several hundred Doctors to provide the medical cover. The company has now branched out into other medical related activities such as Choose and Book, Dental advice, and front ending A&Es, and we are continually looking into innovative schemes to help us to improve the medical care of all the patients within our area.