5.05pm Mr Hunt’s full speech is available here Primary Care and the modern family doctor
5.00pm After watching Mr Hunt’s speech HSJ reporter David Williams told HSJ Live: “Mr Hunt was keen to give a more nuanced picture than he feels has recently been reported on primary care.
“He said that we have lost the concept of the family doctor and that GPs need to become responsible for all the patients on their list again.
“However, while the contract was partly to blame and had to change, he also said the inspection system also needed to improve and the government needed to remove barriers to integrated care.
“He was also keen to steer clear of GP bashing.
“Whatever the problem was, he said, it’s not the fault of GPs or primary care professionals more generally.
“Mr Hunt also gave an interesting indication of how the chief inspector of primary care might work.
“The health secretary said he was concerned about patients in care homes, and that the chief inspector would assess practices on how they look after patients in residential care.”
4.37pm The King’s Fund has responded to Mr Hunt’s speech
Acting director of policy Candace Imison said: ‘The appointment of a new chief inspector will give quality in general practice a higher profile and place it on the same footing as hospitals and social care.
“However, regulation and inspection can only provide a backstop – the main responsibility for quality of care lies with GPs and their practices.
“It will also be important to focus on other proven ways to drive quality improvement including peer review and making more performance data available to the public.
“The GP contract does need to change to reflect the way general practice needs to improve. However, it is not the only source of the problems highlighted by the Secretary of State and is not the main driver of pressures in emergency care – the reasons for this are much more complex.
‘It is essential for general practice to embrace change to improve the quality of care for patients and meet the challenges of the future. The rhetoric from all sides must now be followed by constructive dialogue and concerted action to ensure this change is delivered.”
@TheKingsFund tweets: Jeremy Hunt: ‘I want GPs to sign off out-of-hours care in GP practices, I want them to be our champions in the community’
David Williams reports: A CCG lead asks Hunt: “Given CCGs are already commissioning out of hours care, what is the difference?” Hunt responds “The vast majority are going to want to sign off through their CCGs”
David Williams reports: “[Hunt] wants to make GPs responsible for out of hours care. They should sign off that they are happy with it. They might wish to do it through their CCGs. The contract will be part of those changes but also inspection needs to change and government needs to remove barriers to integrated care.”
@PickerInstitute tweets Jeremy Hunt: ‘We need a complete overhaul of how GPs are assessed’ appointing a Chief Inspector of General Practice working at CQC #kflead
@Jeremy_Hunt “GP contract will change but other things will need to change too”
David Williams reports that Mr Hunt says blames the GP contract, not the professionals.
@TheKingsFund tweets: Hunt: “We need a complete overhaul of how GPs are assessed’ appointing a Chief Inspector of General Practice working at CQC
@TheKingsFund tweets: Jeremy Hunt: “We’ve lost sight of GPs as family doctors’ #kflead
4.15pm Health secretary Jeremy Hunt is addressing a conference organised by the King’s Fund health thinktank
2.13pm Health secretary Jeremy Hunt is addressing a conference organised by the King’s Fund health thinktank and is expected to outline plans for a new system of ratings of GP surgeries and the creation of a new post of chief inspector of primary care to monitor standards.
HSJ reporter David Williams will be live-tweeting the event, technology permitting. Follow him on @dwilliamshsj
2.12pm Medical negligence cases brought against the NHS and health sector have increased by 18% year-on-year from 13,517 in 2011-12 to 16,006 in 2012-13, according to new figures published by the Department of Work and Pensions.
A hat tip to medical negligence solicitors Axiclaim for drawing the figures to our attention.
12.16pm Informatics, patient involvement, and service change are clinical commissioning group leaders’ weakest areas, according to their responses to the HSJ/GatenbySanderson barometer survey.
12.10pm More than one in five clinical commissioning groups are planning to “introduce” competition for out-of-hours primary care in the next year, an exclusive HSJ survey reveals.
12.10pm NHS England has licensed 15 academic health science networks which it hopes will improve the uptake of innovative treatments by trusts and generate economic growth.
11.40am Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners Dr Clare Gerada GPs has written an opinion piece for the Independent accusing ministers of scapegoating GPs over the severe issues surrounding A&E services. “I cannot sit back and allow my profession to be held responsible for the problems in A&E as a result of opting out of out-of-hours care,” she says.
11.34am A report by the Kings Fund warns that a plethora of new NHS organisations set up last month when the health service was restructured has increased the risks to patients, the Daily Telegraph reports.
11.30am The growing row between ministers and GPs has intensified after senior GP launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Hunt over out-of-hours care.
Dr Laurence Buckman, the chair of the British Medical Association’s GPs has accused the health secretary of “spouting rubbish” and rejecting his demand that family doctors take back responsibility for out-of-hours care.
You can listen to Dr Buckman, who made in outspoken comments in a speech to the LMC annual conference this morning, on the BBC4 Today programme here.
The story has been covered by the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph among others.
9.57am The 2012 Olympic Games put a spotlight on volunteering like never before. The games makers were credited with creating the “spirit of the games”, prompting many to wonder how this spirit can be recreated in other areas. In the health sector, volunteers already make an enormous contribution to patient care and to public health.
Research recently published by the King’s Fund explores the future of volunteering and makes recommendations on how the NHS and other organisations can work with volunteers in the most effective way possible. The contribution made by volunteers is often underappreciated.
Chris Naylor and Claire Mundle outline the benefits of engaging with volunteers and explain how the health service can attract them and cultivate a relationship that is mutually beneficial.
9.00am On HSJ today, read the full full results of our latest Barometer survey of CCG leaders. The survey is the first of our quarterly polls carried out since CCGs took on their full powers last month.
Asked to rate their confidence out of 10 that their CCG “can stick to its budget without compromising care quality or access in the next year”, the average score was 7.2. However, they did reveal that informatics, patient involvement, and service change are clinical commissioning group leaders’ weakest areas.
Read HSJ editor Alastair McLellan’s leader on the survey findings for free here.
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