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Polyclinic agenda hijacked
• THANKS to all who helped to make our meeting with Frank Dobson at the Caversham Practice such a success. It was standing room only, with over 100 people from all over Camden.
Frank and Candy Udwin made excellent speeches and there were terrific contributions from the floor.
There is still work to be done to challenge the primary care trust’s hijacking of the polyclinic agenda, turning whatever positive health gains for the community there might into an opportunity for them to control patient “demand”, and for the commercial sector and foundation trusts to profit.
There is a need for the case we put forward to be clarified and refined: without needing to call them “polyclinics”, existing general practices should be encouraged and resourced to remain independent but work together – with other NHS GPs, hospital colleagues, voluntary and social organisations – in voluntary networks, close to the patients they serve.
This is the model that the Caversham and James Wigg are proposing. There is a world of difference between this model and the models which are being pushed through for UCLH and which may emerge for the Royal Free too.
The destabilisation and destruction of general practice in a community-based and patient-centred form – where quality and continuity of care are paramount – is at stake. We mustn’t let the primary care trust and the government use polyclinics and “GP-led” health centres as a cover for not only allowing, but actively encouraging this destabilisation as a precursor to the privatisation of the NHS.
DR STEPHEN AMIEL
On behalf of the Caversham Group Practice
Peckwater Street, NW5
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