Exclusive The GP elected to be next chair of the National Association of Primary Care has revealed proposals to merge with the NHS Alliance within two years to create a joint body to champion clinical commissioning.
Dr Charles Alessi, a GP in Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey, who will take over as NAPC chair in January told Pulse: ‘Merging is a distinct possibility, why shouldn't it be? If two organisations share values completely there is no need for two organisations.'
On a timeframe for the move, Dr Alessi added: ‘If we are looking at April 2013 as the start of this commissioning process then we should have come to an understanding by then.'
Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance, agreed this was a sensible date for completing a ‘third stage' in co-operation with a complete merger.
Dr Dixon said: ‘We now have a coalition for supporting, championing and proselytising GP commissioning.'
'Our two organisations are working on a second stage to create an organisation that will be able to do that as an interface between us. There could be a third stage where our organisations merged but that would depend on members of both bodies deciding it was the right thing to do.'
The two groups formed a coalition to jointly lobby on behalf of GPs in CCGs ahead of their jointly organised conference, Clinical commissioning in action, which took place in London in September.
