RCGP chair launches Darzi-themed debate
BMA News
12 June 2008
PCT chief executives ‘must be brave’ and resist plans for larger health centres where they are not needed, GPs have heard.
But RCGP (Royal College of GPs) chair Steve Field said strategic health authorities and PCT chief executives in England were ‘scared stiff’ and would ‘implement what they are told.’
Professor Field said that he believed the RCGP had had a positive influence on the content of health minister Lord Darzi’s final ‘Our NHS, Our Future’ report, due to be published later this month.
He revealed he had met the health minister for 90 minutes earlier today (12/06/08), before addressing a themed debate on Lord Darzi’s reviews at the BMA annual conference of local medical committees.
Professor Field said: ‘When we started discussions back in October, general practice seems to have been a problem … all of the evidence I have seen is that the health system is great because of general practice not in spite of it.’
GPs at the conference:
- Condemned plans to impose a Darzi centre in each PCT and urged the government to reconsider
- Agreed there was no evidence GP-led health centres would improve care or demonstrate value for money
- Agreed that plans were ‘designed to destabilise general practice
- Demanded that proposals for non-accredited GPs to work in Darzi clinics be scrapped.