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Most of these individuals are Subscribers to the monthly publication ‘Modern Medicine’.  The balance of records have been extracted from the Medical and Dental Register.

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Email List: Yes. Invitation only.

SMS List: Yes. Used by Members for notification of meetings, alerts and training events.

Selectors: postal,language,gp,specialist,dentist,optometrist,physiotherapist,retail pharmacies, nurses, Dept of Health (DoH), and various members of VIPs, inc royalty.

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Out Of Hours Service (OOH) – The NHS and the GMS contract

A major study on out-of-hours care has highlighted the huge workload and costs that GPs carried prior to the introduction of the opt-out clause in the contract.

Under the terms of the new GP contract, all GPs had the ability to opt out of the provision of Out of Hours services. Where this occurs the responsibility would pass to the Local Health Board.

At the LMC conference, GP leaders were looking at how the profession could take back a degree of responsibility for out-of-hours care.

LMCs backed a motion calling on the GPC to consider moves for GPs to take on responsibility for commissioning out-of-hours services.

Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance and an adviser to Lord Darzi, described the vote as a ‘landmark’. He said pilots could be set up in volunteer practice-based commissioning ‘hotspots’ to gauge GPs’ readiness to take on commissioning responsibility more widely.

But questions remain over how a transition could work in practice, with the vast majority of GPs strongly opposed to taking back any personal responsibility for out-of-hours care.

GPC leaders said any move would depend on the success of PBC, which is only up and running in England.

GPs could take Out Of Hours back by:

Government advisers suggest pilots could be set up in volunteer PBC ‘hotspots’ to gauge GPs readiness to take on commissioning responsibility more widely.

Problems over how changes could be implemented outside England must also be addressed – with PBC currently in England only.

PBC clusters could take control of out-of-hours commissioning.

Another barrier is existing deals with private companies across the country, some signed only in the last few weeks.

Meanwhile…

2 PCT Trusts, namely Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, have abandoned proposals for GP-led health centres as a poor use of money, in a direct challenge to Lord Darzi’s plans for every PCT to have at least one.

Herefordshire PCT has scrapped plans to tender for a standalone GP-led health centre after local needs analysis revealed it would cost an estimated £1.1m in staff expenses alone. ‘It was therefore considered this service model was neither affordable nor represented value for money,’ the trust said.

Buckinghamshire PCT admitting ‘on reflection the PCT decided further work was necessary to assess the most cost-effective and operationally sound model’ and has put aside all applications.

Medi-Mail News

Key words: GMS, Lord Darzi, NHS, OOH, PBC, PCT

Lord Darzi’s view… “I have no doubt in the future we are going to see a critical mass of general practitioners working together rather than what we used to see in the past, which were practices with a single-handed clinician.”

Polyclinics are being touted as the future of the NHS with ministers wanting to see 150 built across England.

With the first 31 being planned in London, will they work?

More than 100 practices are earmarked for closure in London, the first area to reveal plans for the implementation of the clinics. If the proposals are rolled out nationwide, about 1,700 of the 8,700 surgeries in England could shut.

If a trial of the new centres in London, which house GPs alongside other health professionals under the same roof, is successful they could become commonplace across the country.

Alan Johnson

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has insisted that polyclinics will provide a “first-class” health service. He said the centres – which will offer specialist treatments under the same roof – will be in addition to surgeries already in existence, but admitted some smaller practices will be merged.

They would include district nurses and rehabilitation teams working alongside GPs as well as “community matrons”, who provide sick or disabled elderly people out of hospital with care in their own homes.

The government is effectively going to be looking for the cheapest bidder to run these health centres. The government is going to set up in competition directly with existing practices rather than supporting and developing them. What is going to happen is a duplication of services that won’t necessarily meet patients’ needs.

 Every local Primary Care Trust in England has been told that it has to have at least one new “GP-led heath centre” as part of the review of the NHS being conducted by Lord Darzi of Denham. These will have family doctors and nurses working in teams, and perhaps also provide services such as pharmacy, dentistry and minor surgery.

 But medical leaders fear that private companies such as Virgin, United Health and supermarket chains will be offered contracts to run the surgeries at the expense of local doctors, whose practices may have to close.

 United Healthcare Plans

One of the other chief concerns about the polyclinic plan is the way it will undermine the role of the generalised GP who can see any patient who walks through the door.

One of Lord Darzi’s other plans is that these centres would have a greater degree of specialists — for childcare, for women’s problems. That actually starts to undermine the generalised role of the GP and means the GP can no longer see just about anyone who walks in the door and provide a holistic, generalised service that patients really value.

(Lord Darzi, who works part time as a surgeon has been asked to look at how healthcare works by the NHS).

Currently GP’s are carrying out petitions ‘Save your local GP practice’.

More than 1.2 million people have signed a petition calling on the Government to support existing GP practices against the threat of closure, and to oppose the involvement of private companies in running local health services.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said that the number of signatures, gathered over a three-week period, showed “huge concern” among the public and the medical profession over plans to shake up existing GP services in England, and the prospect of “creeping commercialisation” in the NHS.

Help yours by signing the petition.

 News review brought to you by Medi-Mail

www.medi-mail.com …Making The Impossible Possible!!!

Keywords: Polyclinic, Primary Care Trust (PCT), British Medical Association (BMA), Local Pharmaceutical Association (LPC), Lord Darzi, Department Of Health (DoH), Hospitals, Super Surgeries, Super GP surgeries.

Originally set-up to answer questions from doctors working in surgeries relating to medicines, medical devices and computer queries. Medi-Mail has now evolved into a ‘medical helpdesk/information centre’ answering queries, providing information & training to healthcare professionals.

We have also worked with the Top 10 Pharmaceutial Companies to provide information about new drug launches and help training events.

The Barbican Art Gallery

Our latest event involved organising a conference for 2,000 guests (GPs & Nurses, as required by the pharmaceutical company) for meeting for a new drug launch. We were able to secure The Barbican, London for the evening and orgainsed the catering to suit the event and 3 speakers. The hall was decorated in corporate colours of the drug brand.

We have also been asked to cover polyclinic hours and provide a 24hrs service….we’re looking into this so watch this space!

 The Medi-Mail Team

Making The Impossible Possible!!!