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New health Bill will ‘do away with’ unnecessary GP bureaucracy, pledges minister

New health Bill will ‘do away with’ unnecessary GP bureaucracy, pledges minister

Exclusive The new Health and Social Care Bill will ‘do away with’ unnecessary bureaucracy, with GPs to play a ‘crucial role’ in delivering the Government’s vision, according to the primary care minister.

Writing in an exclusive opinion piece for Pulse, health minister Jo Churchill said the Bill, which is due for its second reading in Parliament today, ‘will support better collaboration between health services, social care, local authorities, and public health and do away with unnecessary bureaucracy’. 

She stressed this comes as GPs have already played a ‘vital’ part in developing the integrated care systems (ICSs) that are due to take over commissioning power from CCGs when the Bill comes into force, and would be ‘central’ to the Bill’s future success.

She added: ‘GPs will play a crucial role in delivering on our vision, not just in providing care to your patients but because you have a unique understanding of your local communities. You are a key part of what this Bill represents and primary care continues to be at the very forefront of our work to level up health inequalities across the country.’

She also stressed she is ‘incredibly grateful for the tireless efforts of GPs and their teams’ during the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccination drive.

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The minister wrote: ‘We protected the NHS to make sure it was there for everyone who needed care and I am incredibly grateful for the tireless efforts of GPs and their teams, Primary Care Networks, community pharmacy, community health teams and dental teams, who have kept serving patients throughout the pandemic.’

She especially highlighted that ‘there have been over 309 million appointments to get vaccines in arms while also treating patients for other health concerns’.

And she added: We want to help make your lives easier and support you as we learn to live with the virus, so you can deliver the best care possible to your patients without being bogged down with unnecessary paperwork or hurdles.’

The Health and Care Bill 2021-22 proposals, first published in a white paper in February, will see ICSs placed on a statutory footing so they become responsible for commissioning and bringing together local NHS and local government services, such as those covering social care and mental health.

Two statutory bodies, an integrated care board and an integrated care partnership, will be formed – with only one GP being required on the board, according to recent NHS England guidance.

Labour said last night that it would be opposing the Bill on its second reading, arguing that the current backlog of NHS treatment means it is not the right time for a reorganisation.


          

READERS' COMMENTS [10]

Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles

Chris GP 14 July, 2021 10:13 am

Oh such super news…..I look forward to CQC being abandoned, appraisals being discontinued, manual handling certificates being non obligatory etc etc……..

Iain Chalmers 14 July, 2021 10:59 am

Must be true, trod in rocking horse shit and saw pigs flying round my PFI building today.

Usual b*****ks I fear.

Turn out The Lights 14 July, 2021 11:03 am

Do you trust em! Only the last 10 years experience to go by.Expect more BS from the flying pigs to land on our laps.

Nick Mann 14 July, 2021 11:31 am

Reducing bureaucracy has been vaunted at every reorganisation since the ’90s. I doubt the Health Minister even knows what that means as she tries to butter us up for another Lemmings’ leap. With the rollout of infinite DESs and swathes of KPIs and metrics upon which GPs will be judged, and paid, don’t believe the hype.

David Oliver 14 July, 2021 2:35 pm

I have read both the white paper and the bill and cannot find anything in them that reduces bureaucracy. PCN’s on the other hand create a whole new tier. It would be useful to hear in what way we might benefit before we collapse under the paperwork and meetings

John Graham Munro 14 July, 2021 3:18 pm

As a student the mantra was ”the patient comes first”——staff would still have treated Bojo even if threatened with a pay cut——-this is altruism gone mad

Andrew Taylor 14 July, 2021 3:22 pm

I also have heard similar promises made over the last 30 years but bureaucracy in general practice continues to get worse. I don’t see anything in the new proposals that will change this trend. They are more likely to destabilise general practice further. I secretly think this is the real intent.

Simon Ruffle 14 July, 2021 4:07 pm

Unicorns for everyone!

Patrufini Duffy 14 July, 2021 9:11 pm

Phew. Yes, you are crucial to their myopic “vision”. You carry on cleaning up the complex dross with a meagre stethoscope, “continuity of care flame” and hope of good times to come, burning your scars on the High Street to the angry irate self-righteous demanders, whilst the private teams revel in the cherry picking, fuelling “on-demand” and ask you for a F-F for an abdominal exam, bloods and speculum. Hoover up social care, inequality and nursing homes too. Visionary slavery continues down the smelly gutter pipe. This is the Americanised model. They’ll dilute you out of their vision and way. I’d like to know who “they” are, you know, the secret MBA mob from Harvard in the DoH and NHSX, taking the data and modelling a plan to demoralise you, so you leave. Get out of PCNs – they are the pen in which the cattle have been herded. Easier paradoxically to control. And burn.

Neil Tallant 14 July, 2021 9:58 pm

Dear Minister, try to fool who you like but please don’t fool yourself; we know this will never happen. While the system continues to regulate and accommodate for the lowest common denominators, bureaucracy is the one thing that is never going to go away.
PS. Heard it all before.