Doctors’ warning to Ministers over rethink on health reform

Ministers have set out a series of changes to their plans to give hospital doctors and nurses a key role in deciding how the NHS budget is spent alongside GPs, as well as watering down plans for more competition.

But in a speech to the British Medical Association’s annual GP conference yesterday, their leader Laurence Buckman said Ministers must go further.

He said the Government’s proposals must not just be a “respray job to try to persuade us to accept the unacceptable”.

The benefits to patients of commissioning led by clinicians had been undermined by the Government’s insistence on enforced competition.

“While we see the potential benefits of clinically-led commissioning, the Government’s attitude to competition takes an idea that could be fruitful and turns it into something rotten,” he said.

A poll for the union has found two-thirds of GPs working in new groups believe increased competition will worsen quality of care.

Dr Buckman said: “What the NHS needs to improve quality and efficiency is collaboration and co-operation across the primary, community and hospital care sectors.

“So a patient gets a seamless service in the settings most appropriate for them, rather than different bits of care delivered by different providers in order to try to get a cheaper deal – a scan in one place, treatment in another, tests in another and follow-up somewhere else.”

Labour Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said: “Professionals and patient groups have been absolutely clear that they oppose the Government’s plans to open up all parts of the NHS to private companies.

“David Cameron is desperately trying to sell his ‘I love the NHS’ image but he still wants to force through his ideological reorganisation.”

A Department of Health said spokesman: “Competition is simply one way we can make things work better for patients. It’s not an end in itself, but it will bring in fresh thinking and different ways of doing things, which not only deliver better quality but also mean better value for money.

“The reality is the NHS needs change today to avoid a crisis tomorrow.”

He added: “It’s simply not true to suggest that there is no clinical support for our plans. The BMA’s continuing opposition to competition should not prevent support for clinically led commissioning across the NHS.”