Letters

Published: 28/03/2002, Volume II2, No. 5798 Page 22

I read with interest the interview with Scottish health minister Malcolm Chisholm ('Sock it to 'em', news focus, 7 March).

I was particularly astonished by his comment that 'local healthcare co-operatives are making significant developments'.

Are they, and at what cost?

Take, for instance, Glasgow.

Here alone, LHCCs' management costs are around£2m a year. On average, 59 per cent of all the funds they receive is spent paying managers' salaries and support costs.

Projected across Scotland, LHCC management costs are around£10m a year.

As for the LHCCs' developments which the minister refers to, no evidence supports the claim that they have managed, and are managing, to develop services better and more cheaply than if the resource was given directly to the main players in primary care, such as GPs. In fact, the reverse is more true.

LHCCs appear more like a burden on the NHS than beacons of innovation.

Peyman Javidan Airdrie