Exclusive Patients look set to be allowed to add to their GP records and agree transfer of information to other parts of the NHS, under plans being considered by the Department of Health.

Exclusive The NHS Constitution and its role in defining patients’ rights to medicines are to be reviewed by the NHS Future Forum, amid warnings from some GP commissioners that they are being denied flexibility to make local funding decisions.

Future Forum chair Professor Steve Field has hit back at claims reportedly made by an ex-Downing Street adviser that the listening exercise on the health bill was ‘just a tactic’ the Government used to push through the reforms.

GPs will be asked to routinely quiz patients about their lifestyle in a new PCT pilot scheme, Pulse has learned.

The GPC has pledged to fiercely resist Government plans to overhaul the GMS contract to incentivise integration between GP practices, claiming the move would erode the independence of GPs and pave the way for a ‘corporate model’ of general practice.