09 February 2007
GPs could deliver huge savings for the NHS by taking on more of the care traditionally given in acute hospitals, according to a Department of Health expert.
In a report on the future of out-of-hospital care, NHS primary care czar David Colin-Thome said family doctors should widen their practice to include specialisms such as diabetes care and dermatology.
Some GPs have already taken up a special interest in these areas but the report, Keeping it personal, heralds an extension of the range of treatments they provide.
Many commentators have interpreted the proposal as an olive branch to GPs, who have been angered recently by plans to cap their pensions and their earnings.
Colin-Thome said consultants should spend less time in acute units and more working with specialist GPs in cottage hospitals.
The expansion of primary care clinicians' work made economic sense, he said. 'The evolution of GP services is about adding and improving, not cutting and rationing services.
'It is designed to take the pressure off hospitals, and recognises that twenty-first century hospitals should be centres of excellence, but only for care that has to be delivered there – emergency and core specialist services.'
PFfeb2007
