GP fundholding

[StealthPolarBear]

GP practices are set to be handed responsibility for most health services under ministerial plans for a radical shake-up of the NHS in England.

Local trusts and strategic health authorities would be sharply scaled back to make way for their new role.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley believes GPs are best placed to understand patients' needs and to decide where money should be spent.

from here

What do you think?

I agree with a lot of the posts on here. The Government is insane to do this now. The NHS desperately needs some stability in order to deliver sustain outcomes and deliver the demanded cuts. There is very little demand from GPs for this role; they're not trained for it; it is complete fantasy that you can engineer organisational restructuring on this scale while also ridding the NHS of 'bureaucrats' (who the hell do they think is going to implement the restructuring? GPs in their non-existent lunch hours?).

There's not enough good managers in the NHS, and those that there are tend to stick to the acute trusts. No bloody wonder; management in primary care or commissioning means having to reapply for your own job every three years.

I do think the NHS has a lot of problems, including wasted resources, outmoded practices and poor management and leadership. But I can't believe anybody who has ever worked in the NHS thinks this is the way to go about it.

There's a good article in the Indy about this I thought. www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittam-smith-the-myth-of-p atient-choice-2026614.html

Although I'm told by health service colleagues that the bigger league scary stuff in the White Paper is what they want to do to hospitals - apparently they will be moved out of the NHS to create 'vibrant local industries' told to aim for far greater income from private work, and if performing poorly allowed to go bust. That allowed to go bust thing has been said many times before (it's politically impossible I think) but we shall see. I can't find anyone in health (GPs, consultants etc as well as managers) who have anything positive to say about the changes.

Yawn! Another re-organisation within the NHS. I have seen it all done before and it will not benefit patients - it never does.

Here's to the meetings and discussions required to set it all up - all atttended by well paid beauracrats with one or two front line staff to pay lip service to the bottom up approach to change.

Here's to all the new headed notepaper.

Here's to the cost of this re-organisation (which won't be cheap - didn't they say the country was broke financially)?

And

Here's to the service usuers who will see bugger all difference in their health care.

YAWN!

oh there are 2 threads on this now and I can't keep up, can I respectfully request everyone moves over to the other one?

here