GP commissioners see little improvement from their involvement in planning patient care

By Craig Kenny | 06 Jan 2012

Exclusive Two thirds of GPs who have been personally involved in commissioning over the past year believe their work has not improved patient care, a Pulse survey reveals.

The poll of 250 GPs found that 44% took part in commissioning work within the last twelve months – but that of those that did, just 31% thought it had brought ‘any benefits for patients' in their area.

The survey also showed one in four practices are now devoting more than one day of GP time each week to commissioning,. Almost a third (31%) said they dedicated between half a GP's day and one full day, while 45% said less than half a day a week was spent on commissioning.

Dr Coral Jones, a GP in east London, said: ‘How can I know how many wheelchairs are needed in City and Hackney? The whole thing is a big folly.'

‘We spend a lot of time going to meetings. Two and a half to three hours out of GPs' afternoons is quite a lot of time being taken away from patients.'

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READERS' COMMENTS

Vinci Ho, GP Partner,

08 Jan 2012

So what is exactly the job description of a GP commissioner?
The truth only surfaces itself with time and constant debates .
The answer is really ' nobody really knows'
GPs are being USED to plug the big hole of bureacracy left behind by the government 's ruthless dismantling of PCTs . I think you can call this a fact now.
Problem is there are only so many GPs who have a lot more important things to do everyday to look after patients.
You see , in those good days when economy was good , NO government will give GP real power or say of how to run the NHS (look at PBC) .
Now , the economy is cr*p , the government needs somebody to be right in front of the line of fire . ' We support you guys to rush to the frontline '
It is like Chinese or Russian government promise you democracy and a real general election .
The punch line is ' We support you to commit suicide , ha ha ha'

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Anonymous, PCT,

09 Jan 2012

Who was naive enough to think that substantive change to a complex health system was achievable within a year. If there is one benefit that comes out of this mess it will be that there is now a cohort of GPs who understand that

we cannot meet the heath care challenge by fiddling with little practice based initiatives here and there,

that system change cannot be achieved by complaining and shouting at people,

that collaboration accross the whole health system is the only way forward

that seeing the world from a wider perspective that the GP practice is crucial and

that people with skills such as finance, contracting, system modelling, information analysis and patient involvement (i.e. good managers) have a major contribution to make

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Anonymous, Other NHS,

09 Jan 2012

in response to Dr Coral Jones' question in the article - it is a commissioners job to know how many wheelchairs are needed in East hackney.

Scale it up and down however you like it - it is a commissioners job to know how many of anything happens.

Its called planning; its called living within a budget; its called delivering services for a population.

Now those who did it have been cast aside as being useless bureacrats, GPs need to get on with it.

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Esmat Bhimani, Salaried GP,

11 Jan 2012

My support for both the above replies.It is the commissioner's job to know how many wheel chairs are required and the criteria for accepting the needs.
GP commissioning was never about improving patient care.It is for cost cutting,management and everything that goes with it.

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