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There is a threat to the existence of our NHS
• THANKS to everyone who attended the packed public meeting on Thursday in defence of GPs in south Camden.
Apologies to those who had to stand or who couldn’t get in, but the size of the meeting called at just a few days’ notice showed the anger and fighting spirit triggered by plans for local GPs.
Primary care trust managers reacted angrily to the report (Public talks on polyclinics, August 28), saying that surgeries in Camden are not under threat!
This is typical of their attitude, which dismisses the serious concerns held by large numbers of people.
Those who could get into the meeting sent a clear message to the PCT and the government that we believe the possibility of moving surgeries into a “polyclinic” or “GP-led health centre” at University College London Hospital does pose a threat to local surgeries.
Many patients do not want to go to hospital to visit their local doctor; they do not want to travel further; and they feel that the special relationship with their own doctor will be lost in a larger, less personal set-up.
And we believe there is a threat to the very existence of our National Health Service with plans for the privatisation of more local doctors.
This government is offering a bonanza sell-off to private companies such as Virgin and UnitedHealth by insisting that at least one GP service in each area is put out to private tender.
The goalposts keep changing but there is a very real threat to privatise at least some, if not all, of the GP services proposed by the PCT at UCLH.
No wonder a growing number of people are signing up to say they have no confidence in the PCT.
We are not going to let them get away with trying to pretend that these threats are not happening and we are not going to let our NHS be destroyed without a fight.
For information about how you can help the campaign to defend our local health service, contact 07734 031 075 or defendcamdennhs@gmail.com
A further public meeting about local services in north Camden will be held on September 24 at 7.30pm in Fleet Road Community Centre.
CANDY UDWIN
Chair, Camden Keep our NHS Public
A two-tier system
• THE huge numbers of people who attended the public meeting organised by Camden’s Keep the NHS Public campaign on Thursday show the strength of feeling in respect of recent changes made by the primary care trust and its current proposals for further privatisation of Camden’s health services.
Camden Green Party strongly supports this campaign.
The trend towards encouraging all services, including GP services, to be contracted out and open to all to tender for is putting immense pressure on our GPs to spend their time tendering for services rather than getting on with their work.
Introducing private provision of healthcare imposes conflicts between the profit motive of the operating companies and the needs of patients, increases the burden on taxpayers and encourages a two-tier health system.
The PCT now proposes moving towards less personal modes of service provision through polyclinics. The importance of having a local GP providing ongoing care on a personal level is self-evident. To many people the proposed polyclinics are one step too far in terms of taking things away from a local community and forcing people to interact on a scale that is just too big for people to get to know each other and have the relationships which are vital for them.
The relationship with an individual GP (or a couple of doctors in a group practice) is particularly important for older people or those with chronic health problems who can often be the more isolated members of our community and benefit from this personal relationship.
It is vitally important that the PCT takes these concerns seriously. Though we recognise that PCTs are not in an easy position, caught between national policy and local demands, we have lost faith in Camden and Islington PCTs willingness to seek alternatives that are acceptable and in line with the best interests in the long term of the community.
For this reason, I am supporting this letter expressing our lack of confidence in the PCT.
CLLR ALEX GOODMAN
Green Party, Highgate ward
GPs know patients
• THURSDAY ' S meeting about the government’s plans for polyclinics in Camden showed one thing very clearly: our neighbours here strongly oppose the forced closure of local GP surgeries.
Polyclinics do have some merits (such as longer opening hours) but what is not acceptable is that our local GP surgeries are forced to close in order to make way for them.
Conservatives locally and nationally are opposed to these forced GP closures.
David Cameron recently personally met some of Camden’s leading GPs to make this point.
Many people value their GPs. GP surgeries are usually located close to where their patients live. Elderly and vulnerable people will find it hard to travel to a distant hospital polyclinic.
Local GPs know their patients, and can offer a personal and caring service, based on a long relationship with the patient. Polyclinics cannot offer this.
The solution, surely, is to offer patients the choice: either a local GP or a polyclinic.
Patients will then choose which they prefer, and the service which proves more popular will end up expanding.
However, forcing the closure of our local GPs and offering no choice at all is wrong.
In this area, as in so many others (such as education), the Labour government thinks that it knows best, and will not give local people a genuine choice.
If I’m elected as Hampstead and Kilburn’s next MP, I will be championing choice for local people and fighting bureaucratic diktats imposed on Camden from Westminster.
The impending forced closure of our local GP surgeries shows just why this fight is so important.
CLLR CHRIS PHILIP
Conservative parliamentary candidate, Hampstead and Kilburn
An ongoing programme
Copy of September 1 letter to Holborn and St Pancras MP
Frank Dobson
• IT was with interest and surprise that I read an article and an advertisement in the New Journal of August 28, regarding some local GP surgeries.
The pieces mention the “movement” of four local GP surgeries, Gower Street, Gower Place, Museum Street and Bedford Square, and the editorial piece states that they are “threatened with closure”.
It is unclear to me where this information came from.
However, the information is incorrect, and in the interests of our patients, I wish to provide you with the facts.
I can assure you, the Camden New Journal, the practices and their patients that Camden Primary Care Trust has no intention of forcibly “closing down” these practices.
As you would be aware, there are a number of GP surgeries in Camden that operate from very quality poor premises, and the PCT is always looking at relocation options that would improve quality for both GPs and our patients.
As part of this ongoing programme, we have recently been discussing relocation options with four surgeries in the Bloomsbury area.
In no circumstances, however, would the PCT relocate a surgery without the agreement of the practice or consultation with the patients of that practice.
I hope that the PCT’s position on this matter is now perfectly clear, and that the meeting is so informed.
ROB LARKMAN
Chief executive, Camden Primary Care Trust, NW1
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