13 June 2008
The government has set out how it will spend £34m to tackle health inequalities as the row with doctors over polyclinics continues.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson told an Institute for Public Policy Research event on June 9 that Labour's proposals to improve access to primary care through GP-led health centres had been misrepresented.
Johnson said: 'The ludicrous misrepresentation of this policy by the British Medical Association and the Conservative Party is a faint echo of their infamous double act 60 years ago when they opposed the creation of the NHS.' The plans would not lead to existing GP practices closing, or 'herd GPs into super-surgeries'.
Mortality rates had fallen fastest in the most disadvantaged areas since Labour had created targets for tackling health inequality, he said. But he admitted gaps remained and progress was 'steady but too slow'.
Health minister Ben Bradshaw reiterated the comments on a visit to a new GP health centre near Nottingham on June 10. He said there had been 'irresponsible scaremongering' that the government wanted to replace local surgeries with centralised health centres.
The Department of Health's report, Health inequalities: progress and next steps, outlined how the Public Service Agreement target for health inequalities would be met by 2010. There would be £34m in extra funding on top of the £250m being spent by the most deprived primary care trusts to procure 112 new GP practices and to allow all PCTs to open a GP-led health centre with extended opening hours.
The government would provide £19m to promote healthier lifestyles through behavioural change and establish a national support team for areas with high infant mortality, and £15m directed towards those with the greatest need, including children.
King's Fund chief executive Niall Dickson said the report acknowledged progress had been made on areas such as infant mortality and life expectancy. 'But some health inequalities continue to widen – and the geographical gap in life expectancy has risen for women and remained static for men,' he said.
The BMA maintained its opposition to what it calls the 'headlong rush into polyclinics and health centres', saying patients might have to travel further for services and that the proposals favour alternative providers of medical services, rather than GPs.
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