GP links to PCTs threaten regulation plans

03 Dec 07

The House of Commons heard that the plan to hand the role of responsible officers to PCT medical directors opened up serious risk of conflict of interest, and that potential loopholes should be tightened.

Plans in the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill for responsible officers – designed to be the eyes and ears of the GMC – have provoked disquiet among many GPs.

But the Conservatives are now calling for responsible officers to be independent from the trust, and potentially even more free to act on potential concerns.

The warning follows concerns of similar conflicts of interest in practice based commissioning, prompted by last month’s Audit Commission report.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said appointing a member of the PCT board in the responsible officer role risked conflict of interest between ‘clinical governance’ and ‘managerial responsibility.’

He warned: ‘It is important clinical governance be conducted by somebody who only has that responsibility, with no risk of conflict of interest with other responsibilities.’

Mr Lansley also cast doubt on plans for the responsible officers network to be in place by April 2009, describing the timescale as ‘a heroic assumption’.

But health minister Ben Bradshaw defended the new breed of officers, who as well as seeking to identify poor professional performance will make recommendations to the GMC for revalidation.

However, fears that the rest of the bill will sail almost unopposed through parliament were heightened as both main opposition parties confirmed their support for the lesser standard of proof.

Kevin Barron, chair of the Heath Select Committee, even claimed the BMA was losing heart in its opposition to the move, and that whereas the body had previously described the bill as an ‘assault on the medical profession’ it now had a diffident tone and was ‘moving closer to where it should be as the representative of the vast majority of doctors’.

BMA chair Dr Hamish Meldrum rejected Mr Barron’s claim of a U-turn, saying the BMA was ‘quite clear on the issues the profession feels strongly about.’

Dr Stephanie Bown, director of education and communications at the Medical Protection Society, said responsible officers will wield an ‘alarming scope of responsibility and power’. She said: ‘There might be people who put themselves forward for this role who may have personal agendas’.