Morrisons planning in-store GP surgeries

Morrisons has revealed it is considering following the lead of Sainsbury's and opening GP surgeries in store, in a move that will fuel the debate over the commercialisation of primary care.

Sainsbury's offers free space to GPs wanting to run a surgery in their supermarkets, and has two GP surgeries in place – in stores at Heaton Park, Greater Manchester, and Colne, Lancashire. It announced in June it would be opening six new in-store GP surgeries across the UK.

It appears that Morrisons are looking at the possible provision of GP services in the store environment.

A logical development in that leading-edge supermarkets need to optimise the store visit by enriching the shopping experience. In effect, selling any goods and services that can legally be sold to shoppers…

Any provider of primary care experiencing drift of ‘business/custom’ to the multiples needs to up their game to equivalent levels of appeal in order to reduce or even reverse the flow.. unlikely in the case of the NHS, given current inefficiencies and attitudes to their ‘customers’…