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Poor GP practices could have to form ‘crappy’ consortia, Buckman warns

By Alisdair Stirling

Failing GP practices could have to form a ‘consortium for the unwanted' because the health white paper makes no provision for practices expelled from other consortia, GPC chair Dr Laurence Buckman has warned.

Outlining the difficulties of performance-managing other GPs at a Westminster Health Forum on the NHS white paper last week, Dr Buckman said: 'What's going to happen to the GP that everybody knows, who over-refers, over-prescribes, or worse has a population that are demanding?

'Well, there'll be peer pressure, there'll be benchmarking. If you expel them from a consortium, where do they go, do they go into some consortium for the unwanted?'

'Because there's no boundary anymore, presumably we'll have a crappy consortium somewhere on Lundy for people that no-one wants.'

Dr Buckman added: 'We ought to be working together. All the practices have to be involved including those who are typically ostracised, they've all got to be part of this, they've got to understand it will be compulsory.'

Dr Laurence Buckman: 'Presumably we'll have a crappy consortium somewhere on Lundy for people that no-one wants' Dr Laurence Buckman: 'Presumably we'll have a crappy consortium somewhere on Lundy for people that no-one wants' Essential Commissioning Skills

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