#News

GPs accused the DH of ‘trying to get GPs on the cheap’ by offering just £12.93 per consultation for practices taking part in its delayed boundary abolition pilots.

Top 5 articles this week
1. GPs slam 'pathetic' practice boundary abolition £12.93 per consultation fee 2. News analysis: Do private deals involving firms like Serco and Virgin signal end of NHS? 3. GPs to show feedback from 15 colleagues in 'unfeasible' GMC revalidation plan 4. DH plans to link alcohol screening to GP pay 5. Funding detail of practice boundary abolition pilots revealed

#FeatOfTheWeek(or should that be feet?)

GP Dr Andrew Murray became the first Scot to win the North Pole marathon.

 

#Twitter

Bothwell GP Dr Mary Church (@zetadoc) shed a little light on heartlifts during housecalls. She tweeted:

Thank goodness for @fredmacaulay @bbcradioscot Much more entertaining the @BBCwomashour @BBCRadio4 Makes housecalls more bearable

— Mary Church (@zetadoc) April 12, 2012

GP and the DH’s national clinical lead for quality and productivity Sir John Oldham (@SirJohnOldham) on the importance of primary care. He tweeted:

GPs have 40x more patient contact than hospitals and inflence 80pcent NHS cost. Time we got appropriate air time

— Sir John Oldham (@SirJohnOldham) April 11, 2012

On night patient discharges from hospital, he added:

Night discharges unacceptable unless patients want it. If Newcastle can sort it so can everyone

— Sir John Oldham (@SirJohnOldham) April 12, 2012

On the same subject, Dr Steve Kell (@SteveKellGP), chairman Bassetlaw Commissioning Organisation in Nottinghamshire, tweeted:

@GrumpyGP @gpforhire presume you've got together with 2ry care docs and agreed process and what's best for patients? What are blocks?

— Steve Kell (@SteveKellGP) April 12, 2012

GP @GPforhire tweeted:

Hospitals seem to forget that GPs and district nurses need to know if a patient has been discharged. If done overnight we rarely find out

— GPforhire (@GPforhire) April 12, 2012

#Blogs

NHS commentator Roy Lilley (@RoyLilley) has read the 473-page Health Bill and here’s what he thinks:

To be a clinical commissioning group (CCG) you have to be authorised. To be authorised you have to have a constitution. A constitution is a complex legal document that can bind practices to a form of behaviour and dismiss them if they err. Effectively put them out of business. The Carbuncle authorises CCGs, provided they have a constitution. So, to save messing about with 250 different constitutions they have produced a template. Just fill in the banks for your CCG. This document describes what you would recognise as a PCT. It's barmy, but it was in the Bill.'

 

GP columnist Paul Corrigan (@Paul_Corrigan) on why royal college opposition to the Health Bill failed to stop it becoming an Act:

But the long march through medical institutions continues. Some royal colleges have longer time spans for calling emergency special meetings than others.

On April 21 the Royal College of Pathologists have a special meeting to call on the government to drop the Bill. This was called because a number of opponents to the Bill really believed that if the Royal College of Pathologists called on the government to drop the Bill, they would.

Some people have strange views of where political power lies.'