At the NHS Confederation’s annual conference in Manchester on Thursday, GPC negotiator Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the financial performance of clinical commissioning groups will depend on the decisions made by ‘everyday GPs’ in their consulting rooms.
He said one of the reasons why practice-based commissioning did not work was because it failed to engage GPs.
He said: The challenge facing us post listening exercise is how will this be different? How will GPs, everyday GPs, actually engage in an agenda in a manner in which we haven’t in the past managed to secure? That really is the fundamental question for us.
‘These changes [towards clinical commissioning] and the Quality, Improvement, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) will only occur and be delivered where there is sign up from your everyday GP. That’s the challenge we need to deliver on in the coming weeks.’
It comes as the NHS Future Forum chairman Professor Steve Field said following the listening exercise the NHS must now focus on trying to make the reforms work.
He said: ‘There are no people trying to destroy the NHS or kill patients through changes in the NHS. So frankly, what we have got to try and do is try and make this work. This is too important to play with.’
