We won't replace GP partnerships that are working well, Streeting tells Pulse

Exclusive The Government will not replace ‘really effective GP partnerships’ as part of its plans to reform the NHS, the health secretary has told Pulse.

Speaking at a roundtable event on how the charity sector fits into the Government’s 10-year plan, Mr Streeting took a question from Pulse on how GP partnerships will fit into the Government’s vision of the NHS, amid concerns around the future of the independent contractor model.

He told Pulse that the Government were ‘not interested’ in replacing GP partnerships that are ‘already working well’, adding that the new neighbourhood models offer GPs the chance to ‘lead a new way of delivering’ care.

The 10-year plan will introduce two new contracts for neighbourhood services which the Government said will be an ‘alternative’ to GMS, but grassroots GPs and GP leaders have since expressed concern that the plan could threaten GP partnerships.

But Mr Streeting said that he would not be imposing ‘top-down’ reforms.

He said: ‘The reason why the structural reform in the 10 year plan will work, where previous attempts have failed, is because we are not interested in doing [former health secretary Andrew] Lansley-style, top down reorganisation, and coming in like a bull in a China shop to knock through things that are already working well.

‘If you’ve got really effective GP partnerships that work and if you’ve got primary care networks that are working, why would I want to come in and say, “I think my model’s better than yours, so I’m just going to stop you doing something that’s working in order to do something else”?’

He added that Government is asking GPs to ‘step up’ in adopting the neighbourhood model, which will ‘include GP partnerships’.

Mr Streeting said: ‘What we are doing as a neighbourhood health model is inviting GPs to step up and lead a new way of delivering neighbourhood health in a way that I think lots of GPs will be up for including GP partnerships, and those pioneers will show us the way.’

It comes as Pulse today revealed that GPs in England may re-enter into dispute with Government due to concerns about the 10-year plan.

Two motions for debate at the BMA’s GP Committee raised concerns about the lack of progress negotiating a new GMS contract, and warned of the 10-year plan’s ‘existential threat’ to the independent contractor model.

Following the plan’s publication, the BMA said it could ‘seriously undermine’ the current GP practice model, revealing that its GP committee had not been allowed to see the plan ahead of publication.

In response to the GPC motions, Mr Streeting said: ‘Despite some of the challenges we have in our working relationship with sections of the BMA, at the moment, we’ve actually have, I think, a really good relationship with Katie [Bramall, the BMA’s GP committee chair] and the GPC.

‘The message for the BMA overall is that we can either work together and improve the lives of patients and the lives of people working in the NHS – and in doing so, rebuild our National Health Service – or the BMA can choose to look at the NHS hanging by a thread, and pull it.’

Prior to Labour coming into power, Mr Streeting expressed doubt concerning the future of the GP partnership model, arguing the ‘murky’ GP contract should be ‘ripped up’. However, he has since said he wants to ‘engage’ GPs in the discussion and primary care minister Stephen Kinnock recently committed to a future for the GP partnership model.

Earlier this week, Mr Streeting told MPs that the 10-year plan reforms will generate ‘enthusiasm’ about working in general practice from future generations of doctors.

Pulse has recently looked at what the 10-year plan will mean for the GP partnership model.

Read all of Pulse’s coverage of the 10-year plan here.