Other UK News In Brief

GPs Must Take Responsibility For Budgets, Says Senior Doctor



The proposed NHS reforms will fail unless GPs are legally obliged to take financial responsibility for practice budgets, argued a Senior Doctor in this week’s British Medical Journal.

 Dr Danny Ruta, Joint Director of Public Health at Lewisham Primary Care Trust in London, believes that the real aim of the White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, is “to force doctors, once and for all, to consider the opportunity costs of their day to day clinical decisions.”

 In effect the white paper’s proposals “force the group of doctors whose interests are arguably most closely aligned with the needs of the population to consider the opportunity cost of their clinical decisions so that they can maximise health gain for that population and reduce health inequalities with the resources available to them,” he said.

 He believes that this most radical policy intervention may succeed where all others have failed, but warns that “if the GPs in a consortium fail to manage their practice budget … they must lose their contract with the NHS.” 

Competition between consortiums “could promote efficiency and deliver better clinical outcomes, but only if GPs take financial responsibility for the budget,” he said.

 If this is achieved, “the NHS could quickly start to deliver maximum health gain for the resources available and may even do it equitably.”

Fine For Severe Workshop Injury

A family friend who offered to help out in a workshop in Batley was severely injured when her arm was dragged into a rotating machine tool. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told Dewsbury magistrates that Julie Thackray was helping out at a friend’s business when her glove became caught in the chuck of a high-speed milling machine, leaving her with fractures and cuts to her forearm. Business owner Graham Salter, 56, trading as Diptune, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation for failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery. He was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,622 in costs.

Government's Science Advisers In The Hot Seat

Members of the public will have the chance to meet scientists who advise the Government and guide decisions on key scientific matters at London Zoo next week. On 20 October the Scientific Advisory Council, which provides independent scientific advice to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will open its doors to the public during its sixth annual open meeting. The meeting at London Zoo will be an opportunity for interested members of the public to see the council at work, meet its members and find out more about the activities and the scientific challenges faced by the group. The meeting will start at 10am and close at 4.30pm. Key issues to be discussed include: how science is helping Defra respond to risks associated with the environment and human, animal and plant health; and how mathematical and statistical evidence can be used and shared effectively across the Defra network to inform policy development. Registration on the council's website is essential.

(BMcN/GK)