The NHS Alliance and National Association of Primary Care have formed a new coalition to jointly lobby on behalf of GPs in clinical commissioning groups and to ensure they remain at the centre of decision-making in the NHS.
The two membership bodies announced they are joining forced ahead of their jointly organised conference, Clinical commissioning in action, which takes places in London on Wednesday.
The two bodies said they want to ensure that health professionals are at the heart of the new NHS and are not overly controlled by central government or overburdened with statutory responsibilities.
In particular they intend to ensure that CCG boards ‘have GPs as majority members with a strong primary care focus', and that CCGs are the ‘final decision-makers' for their patients.
Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance, said: ‘We will listen to and represent CCGs' views and concerns without compromise, wherever and whenever necessary. We will be a united voice that will serve to balance the top-heavy approach often seen in the NHS.'
National Association of Primary Care chair Dr Johnny Marshall said: ‘Our respective organisations bring their particular strengths to the table to enable us to be bigger than the sum of our parts. The NAPC has an unwavering history of supporting innovative GPs working with budgets, bringing both clinical and financial accountability together for the benefit of local patients and populations.'
