The White Paper

I think it would be fair to say that the last ten days have been defined by the release of the White Paper. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, changes to the structure of the NHS since it was formed. We are awaiting the publication of five accompanying papers, which are due out by the end of next week.


The White Paper, Equality and excellence: Liberating the NHS, was launched at Downing Street last week – I had the privilege of attending and being able to speak to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State about the paper. I must say that I got the sense from our new PM that he really does believe that putting GPs and other clinicians in charge of the NHS will deliver a less bureaucratic and better quality service. Both he and the Secretary of State expressed ambition for the NHS to be a more patient focused, more personalised system with GPs right at the heart of everything that happens. I know people may be sceptical, but David Cameron did say that the NHS is his number one priority – time will tell- and of course the financial squeeze could have a bigger impact on health than we can see, but, I came away thinking that we do seem to have the politicians at the top of government supporting GPs – and they have gone public too!

It was also interesting that they both talked about the influence of the Liberal party on their original plans, and the need for much more patient and public engagement in commissioning. It was a good opportunity to talk to the whole ministerial team and the senior civil servants without the gaze of the publicity machine, and to share concerns as well as discussing the opportunities.

I believe that the White Paper presents a real opportunity for GPs and for our patients. Over the past three years I’ve met with politicians from all political parties and have given them critical feedback when needed, as well as congratulating them when appropriate. I have known Andrew Lansley for some time, meeting with him and his shadow team on a regular basis and I know that these plans had been developed before the country plunged into the current financial crisis. Contrary to the belief of a few our colleagues that I have met around the country, I do not view these changes as a ‘stitch-up’, with politicians setting us up to fail, rather than they are desiring to give GPs more influence. I won’t stop giving the government critical feedback and challenge when needed, and I will continue to feedback from you to the civil servants and politicians as I have been doing over the past three years. I have sometimes had over 2,000 responses from you all, for which I thank you for – I read them all – thank goodness for long train journeys!

I have every confidence that our GP colleagues across the country will get involved with the consultation and provide their invaluable input at this crucial time. We met with Laurence Buckman and Richard Vautrey from the GPC last week to discuss the White Paper and other issues we continue to discuss developments with other organisations, including the medical Royal Colleges.

What we have seen so far leads us all to believe that GPs in England might at long last gain real influence to control budgets and commission services, enabling patients to receive high quality care and better continuity of care. We obviously need to study this in great detail but I hope we can provide our influence so that GPs can at long last take centre stage in the running of the health service.

The Outcomes Paper was released on Monday, and the Commissioning Paper just came out yesterday, so we’ll be ploughing through the fine detail of both of these important documents. The Outcomes Paper indicates to me that our practice accreditation programme will be something that will help GPs across the country.

I acknowledge that most GPs will want to continue providing high quality care wherever they live in England, whilst some GPs will want to become more involved. Clearly, we need to learn lessons from the previous attempts at commissioning and fund holding but GPs will want to work with specialist medical colleagues, nurses and, indeed, supportive and high quality managers to make this happen.

I believe that with collaboration with our specialist colleagues, nurses and other professionals working in primary care to tailor services appropriately for patients, and given the right resources and support, we CAN deliver an effective and cost-effective NHS.

Amanda Howe, our excellent Honorary Secretary, will be leading a full consultation on the entire White Paper, and Clare Gerada and I will be starting a more formal email, in addition to this one, to give you factual information as we did with pandemic flu.

But of course, all GPs still have the day job to think about. I am thrilled that the Health Work and Wellbeing initiative is gathering pace, and I am delighted that so many GPs have put themselves forward to contribute to this invaluable scheme. I am delighted that Dame Carol Black’s independent Review of the health of Britain’s working age people has such an impact on improving the lives of people in work, and in helping people get back to work.

I spoke to Carol yesterday; the early evidence from the Post Office and other big employers is that most GPs are continuing to fill in the new Fit Note as though they were sick notes, but in some areas there has been a more radical change. I ask you to think about the Fit Notes when you fill them in; it’s important to try to keep people in work if we possibly can – it’s better for their health, and it’s better for the economy.

I wanted to give you an update on the move from Princes Gate, to explain how our interim and long-term plans will impact on you as members.

As you know, Princes Gate has now been sold and the new building at Euston Square – which is to be developed into a world-class facility – has been purchased. The improvement works and refurbishment that will take place mean that we will not be able to move into our new permanent home until Summer 2012, so, as you have seen in RCGP News, in the meantime we will be based at Bow Churchyard, in the City of London.

I want to take this opportunity to assure you that members' subscriptions will not be used to finance the move or the refurbishment to Euston Square. There is a capital appeal to raise additional funds for Euston Square (over and above the proceeds from the Princes Gate sale). Many of you have already approached the College asking how you can make donations, all of the information on which can be found at www.rcgpfundraising.org.

We all know how stressful moving can be, but the move should not affect your ability to contact the College when you need to. The details, such as our new phone numbers, will be sent to you as soon as they are confirmed. I will, of course, keep you posted on all the changes before they happen.

I want to offer my sincerest congratulations to David Sowden, who has become chair of the Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans of the United Kingdom, and I wish him every luck in this new role.

As always, I value your opinions and feedback enormously, and I urge you to get in touch if you have any comments or questions for me. Sincere apologies for to those of you from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and indeed those international members from around the world – I value your thoughts too wherever you live and work.