BMA launches its national Support your Surgery campaign - 08 May 08
- Extract from : http://tinyurl.com/54hsxz
GPs are worried that government plans to introduce more commercial providers into general practice could destabilise existing services, depersonalise care and put some GP practices at risk of closure. The number of private firms winning contracts for GP practices is growing and, at the same time, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have been instructed by the government to set up new health centres, or polyclinics, that commercial providers can bid for. In many areas there has been little or no prior consultation on the need for these super surgeries.
The BMA will be sending all GP practices a campaign pack containing posters, leaflets and stickers to help them inform the public about local plans. Practices will also be asking their patients to sign a petition that will be presented to Downing Street in June as a giant birthday card celebrating the NHS at 60. Other activities will include advertising, open days in surgeries, and making contact with local MPs.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee said: “Although large health centres may work in some areas where patients and clinicians agree on a proven need, the government wishes to impose the polyclinic model on every PCT in the country regardless of need or demand. Private commercial companies would also be able to bid for the new centres leading to fears that they will be more interested in their shareholders than patients.
- “The government appears to be moving further away from the personalised care it claims to aspire to. Patients will find it more difficult to see the same GP each time and continuity of care could suffer. PCTs should be encouraged to invest in their local GP practices and support joint working between practices and local hospitals. This would allow care to be enhanced for patients without the risk of unnecessarily duplicating or destabilising existing services, and be better value for money for the taxpayer."
- Copy of "Save Your Surgeries Campaign - letter to GPs in England" - Extract below...
8 May 2008
Dear Colleague
BMA Support Your Surgery Campaign – we need your help!
The past couple of years have been extremely challenging for General Practice. Press coverage has been overwhelmingly negative, and we have come under sustained attack as a profession.
The government has been reviewing the way in which primary care services are provided and polyclinics are already being developed across the country, regardless of whether they are actually needed. The number of commercial providers winning APMS contracts is rapidly growing and, at the same time, GP practice funding is under threat. I anticipate that the MPIG which keeps so many practices afloat will come under renewed pressure this year and we need to get the widest possible support if we are to stop our practices being defunded.
The GPC is committed to defending and promoting the value of General Practice. We have a first class team of professionals who help us to negotiate with the Government, and to influence MPs and the media, but we find it extremely difficult to reach the general public, who play such a vital role in influencing the Government of the day. For this, we need to think on a broader scale, and this is why I am writing to you today, to ask for your help.
As a part of our wider communications strategy, we have developed a campaign which we hope will raise public awareness of the threat that current government policy poses to the current model of patient-centred general practice.
Early in the week commencing 19 May, each GP practice in England will receive a Support Your Surgery campaign pack. The centrepiece of this campaign will be a nationwide petition, which we intend to present to the Prime Minister on 12 June with as many signatures as possible.
The BMA will be publicising the campaign on a national level but we cannot succeed unless every GP practice across the country actively supports us. We need you to display the petition and campaign posters prominently within your practice, to explain to your patients exactly what impact the government’s plans will have on their local surgery, and to encourage patients not only to sign the petition, but to write to their MP and their PCT, explaining just how much they value the service provided by their local GP surgery.
Practices could also use the campaign material as the basis for local campaigns to highlight specific local issues – a number of LMCs have already run similar local campaigns with great success. The more media coverage and signatures we get the greater the national impact will be and therefore more chance we have of changing government policy.
Each campaign pack will contain all the material you will need to explain these issues to your patients. In addition, LMCs across the country will be provided with the information and support they will need to engage the local media, to arrange meetings with local MPs, and to support local practices during this campaign.
I am aware that I am asking a great deal of you as individual GPs. However, the magnitude of the threat facing General Practice today is so great that I do not believe we can succeed in our endeavours without the support of a united profession. The GPC’s fine words will count for nothing unless we are backed by the actions of every GP across the country. This is the time for us to stand up to promote and defend our profession so NHS General Practice as we know it continues for the next 60 years.
I call for your active support on behalf of the future of NHS General Practice. Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely
Laurence Buckman
Chairman of the General Practitioners Committee
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