16 March 2007
Doctors' leaders and NHS managers have dismissed MPs' concerns over out-of-hours GP services.
The Public Accounts Committee this week slammed as 'shambolic' the introduction of the system which allowed GPs to pass responsibility for evening and weekend care on to primary care trusts.
Its March 14 report criticised the Department of Health's hands-off approach to contract negotiations, which had benefited only doctors, it said. PAC chair Edward Leigh added: '[GPs] were given a strong incentive to opt out… and a disproportionate amount of taxpayers' money is now having to be spent to provide the replacement out-of-hours service.
'To cap it all, the cost of the new service is around £70m a year more than was expected.'
But the NHS Confederation, which led the negotiations with doctors' representatives, said the report was based on the contract's first year of implementation.
Chief executive Gill Morgan said: 'It is therefore unfair to assume that this is an accurate reflection of the situation now.
'PCTs are working hard to improve value for money and ensure patients are treated by the right health care professional in the most appropriate place.'
The British Medical Association rejected the notion that only GPs had done well out of the system.
Hamish Meldrum, chair of the BMA's GP committee, said: 'Family doctors had been taken advantage of for years, working long hours on the cheap. When… primary care organisations took over responsibility for providing the [out-of-hours] service and in some places failed to make a good job of it – they try to blame the GPs.'
PFmar2007
