The push of hospital services into primary care will continue for at least the next decade, health secretary Andy Burnham has emphasised in an interview with Pulse.
He said the huge financial challenges ahead could only be met if more services were taken into GP settings in the coming years, which he said would come to be defined as ‘the decade of primary care’.
It follows controversy over plans to implement a massive shift of hospital workload to primary care polysystems, which prompted GP leaders to join nearly 200 health service workers at BMA headquarters last week to rally against NHS cuts.
But Mr Burnham insisted: “There is far more that can be done in the patient’s home and in general practice to cut unnecessary referrals to hospital. If we’re going into this coming period with no change to hospital services, that would take money out of primary care. My vision is the opposite.”
He also claimed the Conservative pledge to implement a suspension on hospital reconfiguration was not credible, saying: “A moratorium on hospital reconfiguration is not a sustainable position, and I think most GPs would probably acknowledge that.”
Read more at Pulse.
Tags: GPs
