Fundholding is Back!

Or at least a form of it.....

Andrew Lansley is planning to abolish PCT's and Strategic Health Authorities and hand their 80 billion commissioning budgets to GP Consortia - in all but name 'Fundholding'

Don't get me wrong, I am not completely against this, but having worked within the NHS for over 25 years, many as a Senior Manager within Primary Care, I am well aware that most GP's are not (commercially) business trained. Infact many GP's find it difficult to wear a commercial hat when faced with a sick patient requiring expensive treatment or medication. Making decisions based on cost will never come naturally to them.

Of course there will be those Doctors who relish the chance to be a key player within their local Consortia. They will be happy to devote time to financial meetings, planning meetings, strategy meetings etc., happy to offload consultation time to their long suffering practice partners or a hired locum GP. Things are easier for those keen Doctors since the first time fundholding was rolled out. This time round, due to previous changes to the patient registration system, patients are registered with a practice and not individual GPs, thus freeing Doctors from the more intense Doctor/patient relationship of an individual list of registered patients.

One major area of concern is what will happen to the dispanded Strategic Health Authority and PCT personnel? Tradition dictates that a great many of these employees will be moved sideways, redeployed.........

Redundancy is something else that does not happen naturally within the NHS!