Local blueprint for primary care revolution kickstarts GP reform
Heart of Birmingham primary care trust has placed itself in the vanguard of the drive to modernise primary care.
It has a radical plan to set up franchised primary care units, each serving around 10,000-15,000 patients for five to 10 years (for more background, click here). Winning the work will hinge on signing up to deliver demanding service specifications covering everything from opening hours to staff attitudes.
The fact that a local GP has branded the plan ‘lunatic’ demonstrates just how gutsy the PCT is being.
Exploding the myth that there is something numinous in the relationship between GP and patient, the trust points out that primary care has much to learn from companies such as Asda, Tesco and Virgin when it comes to customer relations.
People with chronic conditions and poor care should not be expected to wheeze and hobble for a few more years, waiting respectfully until those with nothing more useful to contribute than ‘lunatic’ deign to come up with a better idea.
The government’s growing focus on tackling health inequalities requires inner city areas such as Heart of Birmingham, which encompasses Lozells and Handsworth, to deliver dramatic improvements in healthcare access and standards. That requires vision, leadership, risk-taking and action, all of which this PCT is demonstrating in abundance.
And some local GPs are, the PCT says, already coming on board.
In the struggle to improve health services the only easy part is finding someone to say ‘no’.
No to the private sector, no to extending opening hours, no to imaginative partnerships that improve the patient experience, no to new ways of managing clinical teams, no to following basic rules of hygiene.
But Heart of Birmingham’s plan shows what could be achieved with open minds - a collaboration between the trust, the private sector and GPs to deliver better services for more people.
This bold plan may come to be seen as a test bed for primary care reform. Ministers will be watching to see if this locally driven initiative succeeds, and whether local doctors trying to keep out the tide are abandoned by their more far-sighted colleagues.
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 17-Nov-2007 4:54 pm
Where is the evidence that Asda policies promote health to hard to access communities?
The problem is one most GPs can accept .tTe solution seems to favour middle class voters rather than these needy communities.
But them PCTs rareley use evidence to plan changes when introducing evidence based care.
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Daryl Mullen | 5-Dec-2007 12:38 pm
If anyone has there minds closed its the author: no to evidence based treatments, no to proven low cost models of care, no to existing providers having equal resources to new entrants, no to trialling this in a scientific way.
GPs are pragmatists if it can be shown to work then they will do it.
Don't try to tar us with the brush of obstructive dinosaurism. We GPs have been here before with crazy managemnt ideas. This model is what they have in the USA -is that truely what we want to replicate? Please denign to reply Richard
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