15 September 2006
Patients with long-term illnesses will be encouraged to help themselves through a new social enterprise company set up this week.
The Department of Health said its new community interest company would expand and deliver the expert patient programme, where sufferers of long-term conditions such as asthma and diabetes are trained to manage their conditions by patients with the same problems.
With the debate raging over Labour's future direction, the move harks back to the party's co-operative and provident society roots.
The CIC is a not-for-profit organisation, although it will trade as a company and not have the tax benefits enjoyed by charities.
Almost a third of the population has a chronic disease and the new organisation will be expected to increase places on courses from 12,000 to 100,000 by 2012.
But some GPs are wary of the programme, believing that better-informed patients will mean more work and possibly a deterioration in their relationship with them.
However, the DoH insists that knowledgeable patients make fewer visits to GP practices, and primary care trusts will commission the CIC to provide training to reduce the demand for care.
Patients Association trustee Michael Summers backed the move to increase patients' independence. He said: 'If it is a not-for-profit organisation, we would not be opposed to it.'
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