Nhs- Gps Will Be Given Much More Responsibilities

Task 1- 1.3

Local health managers working for primary care trusts currently control much of the spending. They use the funds to plan and buy services for patients including community clinics, mental health units and hospital care.

But according to the new plans, GPs will be given much more responsibility for spending the budget in England, while greater competition with the private sector will be encouraged. This is one of the most radical plans in the history of the health service. The changes will transfer much of the responsibility to GPs. The main aim of the NHS shake-up is to get GP consortia up-and-running by April 2013. (BBC News, 13 April 2011)

Government want to hand GPs control over much of the health budget and open up the service to greater competition from the private sector. Government want changes to convince more and more people. The bill is still working its way through parliament but already 90% of GPs have signed up to the scheme.

The British Medical Association has expressed concern that the plans will allow private health firms to get a stronger foothold in the NHS. The major shake-up of the NHS as health trusts struggle to meet the government’s £20 billion in “efficiency savings” over the next four years (Evening Standard, 13 April 2011). As a result, thousands of NHS posts will be slashed across London including those of doctors and nurses, London Ambulance Service, managerial jobs and lot of others. Majority of the NHS workers are against these major changes in the NHS and they are protesting against it.

The health and social care bill will abolish all of England's 152 primary care trusts, which currently plan services and decide how money should be spent. Under the plans, GPs will be responsible for buying in patient care from 2013, with a new NHS commissioning board overseeing the process. The dramatic shift aims to cut more than 24,000 management staff to reduce officials and...