Nhs shake-up: Prime Minister sees GPs being 'gatekeepers' of health service

The Prime Minister said doctors should be given "the trust and the

money and the power".

He was speaking after the launch of a White Paper this week which announced the biggest shake-up in the NHS in decades.

The new plans will see primary care trusts and strategic health authorities abolished and GP practices handed much of their multi-million pound budget. Consortia of GPs in England will be directly responsible for commissioning the majority of NHS services for their patients, managing a share of about 70bn of taxpayers' money.

Mr Cameron was speaking at Pemberley Surgery in Bedford where he met GPs who already belong to a consortium of 26 practices which commissions services.

He said: "The most important thing is to recognise we are putting the GP in charge of the health service. All of us know who our GP is and we trust them to do the right thing for us in the NHS.

"We don't know all the bureaucrats and the primary care trusts and the rest of it. So let's actually put the trust and the money and the power with the GP.

"They should be the gatekeepers for the NHS.

"That's how we are going to improve patient care in this country, how we are going to get better health outcomes, and how we are going to make sure that every penny of tax that we take from people for the NHS is well spent improving our national health service."

Mr Cameron was asked about concerns over NHS job cuts.

He said: "Obviously what matters in the NHS is actually what treatment you're getting. Are we getting healthier as a nation? If you get cancer do you have a better chance of survival? That's what matters rather than how many people are sitting at desks in a primary care trust."

He said every job loss was "tragic" but continued: "The health service doesn't exist to keep people employed in bureaucracy, the health service exists to help patients get well and make the nation healthier."

He continued: "We are borrowing more than almost any other European or G20 country this year. We have to take action or we'll end up like Greece, in deep trouble, having to make really deep cuts and actually having someone else running our economy for us.

"So we have to take the steps to make sure our economy can grow again and make sure we have a prosperous economy with jobs for everyone."