Daily Mail - 19.08.2019

Page  QQQ Daily Mail, Monday, August 19, 2019

Students ‘recruited to push

gambling apps on campus’

STUDENTS at elite universities are

being recruited to promote betting

apps, it was claimed yesterday.
Undergraduates are handing out £5 notes
to peers to get them to start using gambling
apps, an investigation has found.
They have allegedly been recruited by market-
ing agencies to encourage other students to take
advantage of ‘free bets’ and download the apps.
The two gambling companies involved – Kwiff
and BetBull – said they have no knowledge of the
tactics used by the agencies which claim to work

Betfair’s ‘£20k fed addict’s habit’

One undergraduate, who did not

want to be named, told investiga-

tors at The Observer that student

promoters were giving out money

and drinks to get her to sign up.

‘They were [giving out £5 notes]

for your first bet and a drink to

sign up [to the betting sites]; it

was such a good offer I couldn’t

By Eleanor Harding

Education Editor

say no,’ she said. It is unclear if

handing out cash or gifts is encour-

aged by the marketing agencies or

if some students have taken the

matter into their own hands.

One student promoter said little

guidance was given: ‘The goal is to

get people to download the app

and make a bet... it’s pretty much

up to us.’ The newspaper also

found evidence of students in Bir-

mingham, Newcastle, Nottingham

and Sheffield being hired as ‘brand

ambassadors’ for football tipsters.

However, there is no evidence of

them handing out cash to peers.

Eva Crossan Jory, vice-president

of the National Union of Students,

said yesterday: ‘[It is shocking] to

hear that marketing agencies are

recruiting students and using

such deplorable tactics.’

Kwiff said it was unaware mar-

keting affiliates claiming to work

on its behalf were on campuses,

adding it would not ‘support or

encourage’ this technique.

BetBull said a flyer featuring its

logo being given out at universi-

ties was unauthorised.

The University of Manchester

said it had nothing to do with the

gambling app jobs.

Comment – Page 16

STOP THE

GAMBLING

PREDATORS

CAMPAIGN

on their behalf.
It is understood that the agen-
cies pay students at the Univer-
sity of Manchester up to £12 for
each person they sign up.
Recruitment on campus is often
carried out by sharing links on
social media but some students
employ face-to-face marketing.

A PROPERTY investor was given £20,000 to

feed his gambling habit by the owner of

Betfair despite wanting to give up his

addiction, court papers claim.

Antonio Parente was also given free trips

to football games and the Grand National,

it is alleged. He is said to have banned

himself from Betfair in 2010, according to

The Sunday Times.

But after Betfair merged with Paddy

Power in 2015 to create the group Flutter,

Mr Parente was allegedly able to open a

new account and put in £20,000 which was

matched by £20,000 of Flutter’s money.

The firm is being sued by Amarjeet Singh

Dhir, a former associate of Mr Parente. Mr

Dhir claims he gave the Dubai-based busi-

nessman more than £750,000 to invest but

it was ‘misappropriated’ and spent on

betting. The High Court case continues.

Continued from Page One

The surgeries taking three-hour lunch breaks

MANY surgeries appear to be allowing

GPs to take long lunch breaks or time

off during the afternoon despite claim-

ing to be open.

The Mail has identified practices in

north London, Reading, Brighton, Dor-

set, Sheffield and Manchester which

don’t provide appointments for three

hours or more during the day. But their

websites advertise much longer open-

ing hours so they may not be flagged up

as part of NHS England’s crackdown.

The London Street Surgery in Reading

claims to be open from 8am to 6.30pm

Monday to Friday, but doesn’t offer any

appointments between noon and

3.30pm. Similarly the Avenue Surgery in

Brighton shuts from noon to 3pm over

lunch but GPs don’t see any patients

between 11am and 3pm.

Previous research has suggested up to

half of the 7,000 GP practices are closing

at some point between 8am and 6.30pm.

Reports by the National Audit Office and

the Public Accounts Committee in 2017

both estimated that 6 per cent of sur-

geries were shutting their doors.

freeing up hundreds of thousands
of appointments at a time when
we know it can sometimes be
tricky to see your GP.’
The Mail obtained the figures on
half-day surgery closures after sub-
mitting a Freedom of Information
request to NHS England back in
February. Officials didn’t respond
until this week – six months later –
and at the same time, explained

how they were cracking down on

the problem through the new

financial penalties.

The measures are being enforced

through a new GP contract which

has been gradually introduced this

year and has resulted in surgeries

forming groups called Primary

Care Networks (PCNs).

Practices have to be in one of

these networks with four others in

their local area. If one practice

closes for a half-day, they will lose

their share of money from a

£200,000 pot – about £40,000 if the

money is divided equally between

the five surgeries.

Surgeries will be allowed to close

for the afternoons on a one-off

basis for training but they will

have to get approval from manag-

ers at the local health board.

Last night, Professor Helen

Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the

Royal College of GPs, said GPs were

working under ‘intense resource

and workforce pressures’ and it was

‘disingenuous’ to suggest they were

‘shirking’ their responsibilities.

She said there were good reasons

for why surgeries closed during the

week, adding: ‘It is not time “lost”

to patients, it is usually time spent

conducting telephone or online

consultations, or making home vis-

its – or some of the other vital tasks

that GPs and our teams are required

to do, such as complying with man-

datory or statutory training.’

Comment – Page 16

Agony of father

who couldn’t

get hold of a GP

‘Patients want GPs

to be available’

a GP. Recent figures revealed that waiting
times had reached their longest on record,
with surgeries reporting average waits of 15
days – rising to five weeks in some areas.
But the financial penalties are likely to
anger doctors’ leaders who say their surger-
ies are too short-staffed to remain open
throughout the week.
Currently, GP practices are expected to
remain open between the ‘core hours’ of
8am to 6.30pm from Monday to Friday.
But the NHS England figures – obtained
by the Mail under the Freedom of Informa-
tion act – show that 722 centres are routinely
closing for at least four hours at a time.
These include 197 surgeries which did not
initially tell officials they were shut for a
half-day during the week when asked to sub-
mit details of their opening times.
NHS England – which oversees the day-to-
day running of the health service – calcu-
lates that one million GP hours were lost in
2018/19 as a result of the practices closing
for half-days. But this number is likely to be
a huge underestimate of the scale of the
problem, with many other surgeries taking a
three-hour lunch break or closing two or
three hours early on midweek afternoons.
The issue of half-day closures came to a

head in January 2017 when a damning report
by the National Audit Office highlighted how
patients were inundating A&E units because
they could not get GP appointments.
The watchdog’s findings – and a subse-
quent Mail investigation naming the offend-
ing surgeries – prompted former prime min-
ister Theresa May to warn family doctors
they could lose money.
Two and a half years on, NHS England has
established a means of imposing financial
penalties through changes to GPs’ contracts
which took effect last month.
Dr Nikki Kanani, acting director of primary
care at NHS England and a GP in south-east
London, said: ‘Family doctors are the bed-
rock of our health service and access to GP
practices remains essential to the NHS...
and also to patients who want GPs to be
available at core times, as well as in the eve-
nings and at weekends.
‘By curbing half-day closures we will be

By Sophie Borland

Tragic death:

Sebastian

Hibberd

THE tragic consequences of GPs

closing during the working day

were exposed by the death of six-

year-old Sebastian Hibberd.

Sebastian died from a rare abdomi-

nal complication in October 2015,

despite frantic attempts by his father

Russell to get hold of a doctor.

Mr Hibberd said he called the GP

surgery in Plymouth early on a

Monday morning after the little

boy’s condition worsened over the

weekend. He rang several times

between 8am and 8.45am – when

the practice should have been open

• but was played an automated
  message saying it was closed and
  to phone NHS 111.
  Mr Hibberd had already spo-
  ken to an NHS 111 call han-
  dler earlier that morning

and had been advised to contact his

GP surgery.

Eventually he got through to a

receptionist who reassured him that

the duty doctor would call him back.

But the call never came and Sebas-

tian’s condition deteriorated further.

Mr Hibberd called the surgery again

just after 1pm but a recorded mes-

sage said it was closed for lunch.

Sebastian suffered a cardiac arrest

and died in hospital that afternoon.

Mr Hibberd, a systems technician

who lives in Plymouth with his wife

Nat and three other children, told the

Mail of his anguish. He said: ‘Phoning

the GP in the morning was incredibly

frustrating. I was very irritated that I

was trying to speak to a GP and

they’re not there.’

The Northern, Eastern and Western

Devon Clinical Group, which commis-

sions GP services at Glenside Medical

Centre, where Sebastian was regis-

tered, has commissioned an inde-

pendent investigation.

Grief: Russell Hibberd