A senior Department of Health advisor on GP commissioning has insisted the health bill is still fit for purpose – just days after a major survey found GPs remain unconvinced by the tabled amendments.
Dr James Kingsland, a GP in Merseyside and DH special advisor on commissioning, called on GPs to ‘collectively embrace' the principles of the NHS and the health bill.
In a letter published in Pulse this week, Dr Kingsland said: ‘There cannot be a single citizen in England that does not share these aspirations for the NHS. Indeed of all those concerned with current NHS reform surely none could argue against these principles.'
‘These common-sense measures are designed to help the NHS adapt, just as other services and industries have, to the challenges they face in the 21st century.'
But his comments appear to be at odds with a survey of 500 GPs conducted by the RCGP, which found the changes to the health bill had failed to win over the majority of GPs.
The RCGP poll found 85% of GPs had not been ‘reassured' by the Government's revisions, and that GPs support for the bill had increased by only 6% compared with a similar poll run by the college in February.
