Do GPs ‘basically have to kill someone’ before their contracts can be terminated?
Another day and the DoH unveils another measure by which practices can be judged. Today NHS Choices allows patients to rate practices.
Earlier this year GP reported that Capita won the £60m three-year contract to run the site. So £20m a year on a service already offered, presumably at no expense to the taxpayer, by iwantgreatcare.org.
Nice to know Labour’s doing its bit for the economy by employing as many managers as possible to essentially do the same thing: regulate primary care. Those poor old PCT chief executives even face a pay freeze next year. Just an average of £133,294 to get by on then.
Back to Labour’s primary care regulation obsession and it’s not all bad news for the taxpayer. You’ll remember that GP revealed that the DoH will not fund revalidation annually, prompting concerns the profession (that probably includes you) will also bear the costs of the scheme.
Tomorrow’s exclusive GP splash reveals who will fund the cost of practices’ registration with the Care Quality Commission (Clue: you). We really should put together a shopping list about how much Labour’s obsession with regulating primary care will cost each practice.
Why is the DoH and Labour so obsessed by creating as many methods as possible by which to rate/judge/accredit practices and GPs?
Well, here’s a thought: magazine for managers the Health Service Journal reported recently that David Stout, NHS Confederation PCT Network director, said anecdotal reports that GPs ‘basically have to kill someone’ before their contracts can be terminated are only a ‘slight exaggeration’.
So now you know. Would it be a slight exaggeration for me to describe this as unnecessarily inflammatory?
Remember GP recently launched its Rate Your PCT scorecard. We’d like to know what you think of the quality of managers you encounter. More than 1,100 of you have taken part so far. Spread the word. We’d like this research to be as comprehensive as possible.
