Capital's PCTs give Darzi the thumbs up

The 31 London PCTs and Surrey PCT last week gave the document the go-ahead, putting them on the starting block for setting up 150 polyclinics and triggering major service redesigns over the next 10 years.

Heather O'Meara, chief executive of Redbridge PCT and senior policy officer for polyclinics for Healthcare for London, said she would be writing to PCTs this week to ask how many wanted to be in the first phase, which would see them establishing polyclinics by next spring.

She said: "We will be supporting PCTs and have developed a number of tools to help with commissioning and financial mapping."

The PCTs' endorsement came as the British Medical Association was delivering a 1.2-million-signature petition to Downing Street and claiming that polyclinics would mean the end of GP services as we know them.

But Ms O'Meara said many doctors were unhappy with the BMA's approach. She said: "Some GPs in my area are resigning from the BMA over this."

She added that at a meeting of 48 out of 51 GP practices in Redbridge last week, doctors had given their unanimous backing for the PCT's plan to develop a "hub-and-spoke" style polyclinic.

GPs would stay on their existing contracts in the "spokes", she said, with additional out-of-hours services, diagnostics and outpatient care provided in the "hubs".

Ealing PCT chief executive Robert Creighton told HSJ he had started talking to GPs about polyclinics: "We are developing different models locally that will achieve the objectives for polyclinics and, so far, will achieve them amicably."

NHS London stressed the PCTs' support was for the "framework and not about specific services".

London joint committee of PCTs chair Richard Sumray said: "This is the start of the journey and the NHS as a whole will need to be bold and make difficult decisions, in order to deliver the kind of services that Londoners have told us they want."

See regional plans for Darzi's vision.