GPs are handed more powers in radical overhaul of the NHS
The Health Secretary today said he would press ahead with the most radical overhaul of the NHS since its inception, making £20 billion of savings in the next four years.
Andrew Lansley will give GPs even greater powers by handing them control of maternity services. He also announced that 24 local authorities would act as the "trailblazers" for a shake-up in public health.
In a U-turn on proposals to control maternity services nationally, he said that they would instead be commissioned by GP consortia. In addition, Mr Lansley said that Primary Care Trusts - which will be abolished from 2013- would be receiving £89billion funding next year, an increase of £2.6billion on this year.
In the new vision, each local authority and their individual director of public health will act as strategic public health leaders for their areas. Two dozen councils will begin performing this role ahead of its full implementation.
Amendments were made to a White Paper in July following 6,000 responses from patients, royal colleges, doctors, NHS organisations, staff, professional bodies and trade unions.
Despite minor changes, the big structural changes will still go ahead.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA GP committee, said: "Andrew Lansley doesn't appear to have heard our concerns, and has not changed anything much.
"We remain interested in proposals and willing to work with government but it's difficult to see how things can work when things are happening in such an unco-ordinated way.
"The economic downturn is going to pressurise fledgling consortia.
"We wanted things to happen slower and in a more co-ordinated fashion and we've not heard how they are going to deal with the current NHS debts."
As part of the plans, hospitals will also be warned their funding could be docked if patients are forced to share mixed-sex wards. Mr Lansley said that from April, hospitals would be "held to account" if they failed to get rid of the wards. "We are not going to pay hospitals for providing a sub-standard service," he said.
"Patients have a right to expect dignity and privacy and if there is a breach of that, that will be published."
