Downing Street Says » GP’s Pay

Asked whether the Government would accept that the GP’s pay contract had not gone well, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that Alistair Henderson from NHS Employers had been commenting on the subject this morning. Since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister there had been a renewed push to try and get more out of the GP’s contract. This was why the Government was proposing changes to the contract, such as extending opening hours.

Put that it sounded like an admission that the Government was unhappy with the contract previously, the PMS said he did not think we were saying that. The representatives of NHS Employers was answering questions on the subject this morning and as he had said, Mr Brown as Prime Minister had made it a priority to do more in order to ensure that GP’s were more accessible to the public.

Asked if any Minister’s would be answering questions on the subject, the PMS said that that was a matter for the Department of Health.

Put that GP’s who ran practises had seen large salary increases and Tony Blair had always been supportive of that, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister’s view was that what mattered was the service that was available to the public and that was why he’d been determined to ensure GP’s opening hours were extended and became more accessible to the public.

Put that there was an option in the GP’s contract for opting out of weekend opening, the PMS reiterated that the Government was proposing changes to the GP contract in order to ensure greater accessibility.

Asked if it was possible to change the GP’s contract without the agreement of GP’s, the PMS said that there was a discussion taking place with the British Medical Association and there was a ballot of GP’s underway at the present time.

Asked if polyclinics were being used to put pressure on GP’s to agree to the proposed changes, the PMS said he would not accept that. Polyclinics were an issue that was being looked at by Lord Darzi as part of his review that would report in the summer.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Thursday, February 28, 2008

GP’s Pay

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries