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New GP Arrangements Will Benefit Patients - Deacon
25/01/2001
Some Scottish GPs will in the future have the option of working as salaried employees of the NHS instead of being independent contractors responsible for their own businesses, Health Minister Susan Deacon announced today.
The change is designed to attract more GPs to deprived areas and remote or rural parts of the country and enable the NHS to offer a better, more flexible service.
It will come into effect in April this year following 15 pilot schemes in Scotland over the past three years.
Susan Deacon announced the new arrangements in response to a Parliamentary Question today. She said:
"Since the NHS came into being GPs have been working as independent contractors, running their practices as businesses.
"We are committed in our Health Plan for Scotland to investing in new contractual arrangements for GPs to allow the NHS to employ them directly to work in socially deprived neighbourhoods and some rural areas.
"A review of the first wave of pilot schemes has just been completed and I have concluded that it would be to the benefit of the NHS in Scotland to introduce this option for GPs on a permanent basis.
"The review demonstrated that the new arrangements have the potential to deliver an enhanced level of service, particularly in the area of chronic disease management, to dramatically improve patient access to GP services and to address inequalities.
"Allowing the NHS to employ GPs as salaried employees will help them recruit and retain staff in areas where GPs might choose not to set up their own practices.
"By employing salaried GPs, the NHS will have greater flexibility to develop new arrangements for the delivery of services - for example in areas currently served by single-doctor practices which have to rely on locums, with resulting lack of continuity of care for patients.
"It will mean easier access for people who might otherwise have difficulty in finding a GP, such as the homeless, and will offer new opportunities to health professionals - for example, GPs who want to work part time.
"The changes will lead to improved integration of services between GPs and other members of primary care teams such as community nurses, pharmacists and therapists, giving different professionals greater scope and opportunities. They will also reduce bureaucracy in managing the provision of primary care.
"GPs opting for the new arrangements will negotiate agreements with the NHS locally where the new system would be to the benefit of patients. I am pleased to be able to announce that I have given approval for five of the first pilot schemes to be placed on a permanent footing.
"The new arrangements will help us achieve better, fairer access to services and increased flexibility, which are among the core aims of our Health Plan.
"We said in the Plan that we would look at each service from the patients's point of view, making best use of the skills of all members of the healthcare team and challenging traditional ways of working to improve the speed, responsiveness and quality of care. That is what we are doing with this new GP option.
"This innovative development in the provision of primary health care promises real benefits for patients in socially deprived and rural areas and I am delighted with the progress being made".
BACKGROUND
- The new arrangements for GPs, known as Personal Medical Services (PMS), operate under the NHS (Primary Care) Act 1997. GPs can be salaried either to Primary Care Trusts or within practices or pilots can be practice-based (where the GPs remain independent contractors but have a locally agreed contract)
- The five pilot schemes which are to become permanent are the Milton Surgery (Edinburgh), the Edinburgh Homeless Practice, the Crescent Medical Practice (Glasgow), the Northfield/Mastrick Medical Practice (Aberdeen) and the Ballantrae Medical Practice (Ayrshire).
- The permanent PMS option will be available to GPs and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) from April 2001, where there is a case that such an arrangement would be of benefit to patients. This will mean that, for the first time, PCTs will be able to employ salaried GPs directly on a permanent basis to help recruitment and retention in deprived and remote and rural areas. This permanent PMS option will also enable PCTs and practices to develop local contracts to meet the specific needs of their local communities.
News Release: SE0144/2001
25 Jan 2001