07 December 2007
GPs must collect more data to reduce health inequalities, the Healthcare Commission has warned.
The commission's annual State of healthcare report published earlier this week also found that GP care was likely to be worse in deprived areas.
It hit out at primary care trusts which, it said, did not fully understand the needs of local people.
The report warned that GPs had not recorded the body mass index for 2.3 million people last year as planned, thereby failing to provide 'vital statistics' on obesity.
The number of people diagnosed with heart disease was also 'considerably less than expected'.
Anna Walker, the commission's chief executive, said: 'I do not know what it is that leads to GPs not doing this basic work. It is just very stark that it is not happening.'
Commission chair Sir Ian Kennedy said that there was still 'some way to go' before everyone in the UK received world-class care.'
'People are getting healthier, but there is serious disparity in both general health and in the care available to the haves and the have-nots.'
However, Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the British Medical Association's GP committee, said that blaming GPs for fewer diagnoses of heart disease was 'unfair'.
PFdec2007
