DH-led pilots abolishing practice boundaries should be stopped, LMCs have voted.
Dr Jacqueline Applebee from Tower Hamlets LMC said while the plan benefits the fit and mobile, it is done so at the expense of the “very people the NHS was set up to care for”.
The government pilot sites – London, Nottingham and Manchester – will allow patients to register with any practice of their choice within their home city.
“This is government policy cynically targeted to appeal to voters,” said Dr Applebee, speaking at yesterday’s (22 May) annual LMC conference in Liverpool.
“It appeals to the majority of the population who don’t need regular healthcare at the expense of the sick and disabled, the very people the NHS was set up to care for.”
Dr Mark Bermingham from Derby and Derbyshire LMC agreed, claiming the pilots are an “executioner’s axe hanging over rural practice.”
However, Dr Lutz Umnus from Mid Mersey LMC urged members not to cling on to the “old fashioned and outdated systems”, imploring them not to “tie our mobile population down with practice boundaries”.
Similarly, Deputy Chair of the British Medical Association‘s GP Committee Dr Richard Vautrey also warned members that the call for the abolition of the practice boundary pilots could “destabilise” the entire GP contract.
