• Home
• About Us
• Current issue
• Editor's Blog
• Events
• For Advertisers
• News
• Product News
• Product Zone
• Resources
• Subscribe For Free

Health bill reforms fail to win over GPs

Released 12/08/2011

Survey finds primary care professionals confused by changes and unsure they will help patient care

GPs wary of health bill reforms

The government's planned changes to the Health and Social Care Bill have failed to reassure many GPs, according to a new survey.

Fifty-seven per cent of GPs surveyed by medeConnect said discussions on GP commissioning during the listening exercise had a ‘negative impact' on their confidence in the bill.

Indeed, GP principals were significantly more negative than GP non-principals overall (62% compared with 49% respectively).

However, when compared with the results of a similar survey in April, the number of non-principal GPs who believed the reforms would have ‘a very negative impact' on their confidence in the White Paper had declined from 25% to 17% overall.

Forty-nine per cent of GP principals thought opening up commissioning to other groups would have a negative impact on the quality of care received by patients.

There is also a belief among GPs that their ability to influence the quality of patient care will be impacted by extending commissioning.

Fifty-seven per cent of GPs overall thought that extending commissioning would have either a ‘very' or ‘slightly negative impact' on their ability to influence the quality of healthcare patients receive.

GP principals in particular were more negative on this point overall with 27% stating that opening up the service would have a ‘very negative impact' on their ability to influence the quality of healthcare patients will receive.

The research, which was carried out following the government's listening exercise, also asked GPs to choose the four words or phrases that most described their view of the future of GP practice.

The findings show that GP principals were significantly more likely to choose the word ‘confusing' in our latest survey compared with the April survey (55% compared to 48% respectively) and less likely to select ‘challenging' (49% compared with 57%), ‘empowering' (six per cent compared with 10 per cent) and ‘revolutionary' (five per cent versus 10%).

Anna Garofalo, MD of medeConnect, the independent market research division of Doctors.net.uk, said: "Our research shows that many GPs - and in particular GP principals - still view the Health and Social Care Bill in a negative light following the government's listening exercise.

"The bid to extend the commissioning process to other groups is a source of concern for many GP principals, many of whom believe that it will be detrimental to patient care."

See more news stories like this