Costly private practices will not improve service, warns BMA
pharmafile | December 14, 2007 | News story | |Â Â Â
The government's pledge to build 100 new practices in under-doctored areas could make health inequalities in Britain even worse, according the British Medical Association.
The BMA is concerned Lord Darzi's plan to use private providers for the new services will make running costs high and deliver a lower quality of patient care.
In a letter to Lord Darzi Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GP Committee, warned that the staffing model likely to be used by the private sector would mirror that of a practice run directly by a PCT, which in the past has proved less proficient than traditional GP practices.
He said: "We believe that patients registering with practices run by private organisations holding APMS contracts [Alternative Providers of Medical Services] would be at a distinct disadvantage compared to those registered with a 'traditional' general practice, exacerbating rather than alleviating health inequalities."
The BMA supports the provision of new and better services, but Dr Buckman criticised the government for "wasting time and energy on stimulating markets within the NHS and developing new practices rather than supporting existing ones."
The organisation felt money would be better invested in allowing existing GPs to expand services.
Dr Buckman added: "We would like to see a strategy in place that focuses on ensuring sufficient capacity in general practice based on the clinical needs of the growing population."
Health secretary Alan Johnson unveiled the plan to build 100 new practices in under-doctored areas at the NHS Alliance annual conference in November.
But in his keynote address to an audience of GPs and practice managers he did not detail plans for the involvement of the private sector.
A few days previous to this, the government had announced that poor value for money and improvements in the NHS have forced a number of planned private sector schemes to be axed – schemes that were originally initiated to deliver more better choice and faster treatment to patients.
The BMA pressed the Department of Health for an open admission of exactly how much money has been lost through the schemes.
