Dr Dean Marshall was speaking at the annual conference of Scottish LMCs in Glasgow.

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Dr Marshall told the meeting: ‘I want to send a message to our politicians in both England and Scotland.  Our health service is not a factory, the health service cannot be treated like a commercial enterprise, our patients are not a commodity.

‘We do not support the market-based reforms being pushed through in England, where the consequences for patients could be severe indeed.  Scotland’s GPs will support colleagues in England to preserve the founding principles of the NHS.’

He called for the Scottish government to work with the profession to devise a clear strategy for the future of general practice in Scotland.

‘Without a government strategy, how can we in general practice, the cornerstone of the NHS, drive change and improvements in the quality of care for patients without any clear direction of where we are going? 

‘We have begun this process with the publication of our own policy document but we still have a long way to go to convince politicians of the contribution that we can make to the improvement of care for patients.

‘We still have to convince politicians that clinical leadership by those delivering the service is the way forward.  We still have to convince politicians to put patient care before political priority.’

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