§ 11. Mr. Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire)When he next expects to meet the Royal College of General Practitioners to discuss the structure of primary care groups; and if he will make a statement. [38684]
The Minister of State, Department of HealthWe have regular meetings with general practitioners and other primary health care representative bodies, including the Royal College of General Practitioners. The development of primary care groups is just one among a number of issues that we have discussed. These professional bodies are supportive of the Government's plans to develop a modern and dependable national health service.
§ Mr. LansleyWill the Minister confirm that it has emerged from meetings with those professional representative bodies that the problems of recruitment and retention of general practitioners are severe and growing? To meet those needs, will he therefore extend to general practitioners the commitment that the Secretary of State gave to the nursing profession—that the Government do not propose to stage future pay awards?
§ Mr. MilburnAs the hon. Gentleman is aware, there are problems with the recruitment and retention of GPs in some parts of the country. As he is also aware, the Doctors and Dentists Review Body recommended to the Government—and we have accepted the recommendation—that an extra £60 million be found to tackle some of those problems in the course of the next year or so. We shall discuss those recommendations with the professional organisations, including the British Medical Association, and no doubt target those resources to tackle the hard core of recruitment and retention problems that are encountered in some parts of the country.
§ Mr. Kevin Barron (Rother Valley)When the Minister consults the Royal College of General Practitioners, 140 will he remind its members that the formation of primary health care groups that include people who work in and for the national service and those who are contracted to it will not only improve health care, but prevent ill health? Everyone who is concerned about ill health in this country should join in welcoming that.
§ Mr. MilburnMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. Throughout the country, family doctors and community nurses are enthusiastically embracing the idea of primary care groups, for two good reasons. First, it puts them in the driving seat in shaping hospital services and other local health services, and gives them far more leverage, influence and power than they have ever had. Secondly, the primary care groups go with the grain of the more recent developments in the NHS, where family doctors are coming together and overcoming the divisions of the past—especially the sole legacy of the previous Government to the national health service. The previous Government left the GP community split down the middle between fundholders and non-fundholders, but that is being brought to an end, because we want those in the NHS, including those in primary care, to work together as one.