Ministers have given their backing to an initiative in Birmingham that is seeking to sidestep the controversial GP contract by encouraging doctors effectively to reapply for their jobs.

The project has angered the British Medical Association for seeking to corral GPs working alone into multi-doctor health centre “franchises” that would have set standards, longer opening hours and offer services ranging from x-rays to mental health advice.

“The idea that you can franchise health care and put health service workers in a uniform franchise like McDonald’s sounds so ridiculous I cannot believe anyone would consider doing this,” said Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee. “Working evenings and weekends . . . is the only thing that matters to Gordon Brown.”

The Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust’s corporate franchise strategy suggests the model could eventually allow private providers, such as “Virgin, Tesco or Asda”, to quote the document, enter the market for GP services.

Managers are unable to force GPs to give up their single-practice surgeries. But they believe making doctors sign up to franchise agreements – overlaid on their existing contracts – will make them extend opening hours and offer more services, which would be easier to achieve in a bigger surgery. Doctors who opt out would face intense competitive pressure from other surgeries, managers believe.

The initiative may give the labour government a way to meet its pledge to increase out-of-hours care without having fully to renegotiate controversial GP contracts that gave family doctors a sharp pay rise through incentives that tended to shorten opening hours.

Health officials are closely monitoring the Birmingham scheme to see whether it can be used as a nationwide model. Ben Bradshaw, health minister, said: “Improving the quality and flexibility of GP services is a priority for the public. I applaud initiatives such as Birmingham’s to respond to the views and needs of the local community.”

From:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/13fa0aac-ac42-11dc-82f0-0000779fd2ac.html

Health Direct notes that this is the same Brown Mr Bean that negotiated away the need for doctors to work weekends in the first place.

On January 31, 2007 Health Direct posted BMA team ‘stunned by GP contract’ as a bit of a laugh

GPs were so stunned by the terms offered to them when negotiating their new contract in 2004 that they thought it was a “bit of a laugh”, a doctor has said.

Dr Simon Fradd, who was one of British Medical Association’s GP negotiators, said they were shocked by the approach taken by the labour government. They could not believe it when GPs were given the chance not to do evening and weekend work for only a 6% pay cut, he said.