Top headlines
Boost GP services before cutting beds, says Stevens
Practices to receive £250 for ‘patience and hard work’ in dealing with Capita
13:55 NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said today that there will be ‘tests’ for any commissioners who want to close hospital beds, which will include demonstrating they are putting extra resources into primary care.
He also told delegates at the Nuffield Trust Health Policy Summit that he had done much to improve primary care.
He said: There are obviously a huge set of change that are under way now for general practice and primary care, some of which are for good reasons and some are for bad. And the work that you and colleagues have been doing around the Primary Care Homes, supporting individual practices, clubbing together at the sort of 30-50,000 population level – sometimes bigger than that – I think is part of what the answer is going to have to be.
’So I think we can see that because GPs backs are against the wall – and I would regard myself as probably the most pro-primary care GP kind of national NHS figure there’s been possibly ever, I don’t know – the fact is that there’s a deal on offer: yes, we are going to actually now try and redress a decade’s worth of underinvestment in primary care, but the quid quo pro is there’s got to be significant changes in the way the model works. And I think GPs, for the most part, are up for that.’
He also said STPs were ‘not top-down reorganisation’ but ‘going with the grain of what people want’.
9:35 The CQC has found ‘widespread failings’ at online providers of medication, and called on patients to be wary of buying medication on the internet.
The BBC reports that the watchdog inspected 43 internet prescription services in England, finding some ’potentially presenting a significant risk to patients’.
The CQC says it will visit providers and close any putting patients at risk.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the RCGP, said: ’Whether a patient is accessing care in the community, in hospital or online, they should be confident that it is being delivered safely and in their best interests.
’It’s incredibly concerning to hear reports of patients buying prescription drugs online with minimal security checks in place – so it’s good to see the CQC and others recognising this, and taking the issue seriously.’
Seen something interesting? Email newsdesk@pulsetoday.co.uk or tweet @pulsetoday with the hashtag #GPnews
