BMA attacks "profits before patients"

The BMA this week attacked the profit culture which they claim is

undermining GP practice.

Responding to revelations in Pulse magazine, which claimed

"a series of providers across the country have introduced

permformance management targets on criteria such as home

visits, length of telephone calls and hopsitla admissions", Dr

Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA's GPs Committee, said:

"We deprecate any attempt to persuade GPs to alter their clinical

behaviour for any reason other than to move it to a higher standard

for the benefit of patients."

Dr Buckman added that "making clinical care less good for employers'

own financial reasons is very disturbing and GPs should refuse to work

in this way."

Dr Buckman's comments come at a time when GP services find themselves at the centre of a controversy about service restructuring and extended hours. Several GPs have publicly stated that GP service provision should be dictated by patient needs rather than financial issues and have been critical of measures to introduce "cost-effective services" due to PCTs' struggling to manage the costs of out-of-hours services.

Sharon Holder, GMB official for public services, welcomed Dr Buckman's comments. "What concerns us is the fact that private companies are now dictating the level of services that NHS patients get. It also concerns us that they are putting profit before the needs of patients."

Andrew Billson-Page, from the Save our NHS Group, said he recognised that Dr Buckman's observations "demonstrate a serious and undeniable truth that the quality of care being delivered is being compromised by the profit-motive of self-interested companies." He said that GP services "should be configured according to clinical evidence and based on patient need".