BMJ  2008;336:1090 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39577.649502.DB

News

Darzi’s five pledges fail to quell doctors’ anxieties about polyclinics

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Government reassurances over imminent reform of the NHS have failed to calm doctors’ fears that large health centres, or "polyclinics," will become mandatory in all primary care trusts in England.

The junior health minister Ara Darzi has issued five pledges about how the changes to the NHS—expected to be announced next month—will be achieved, emphasising the central role of clinicians in any local decisions to change services.

Doctors’ leaders, however, have launched a campaign directly opposing what they believe will be mandatory introduction of these large health centres, where GPs work alongside specialists.

Last week Lord Darzi published a report, Leading Local Change, ahead of his final report on the next stage of NHS reform, which is due in June. In it Lord Darzi says that any change will have to be transparent, based on clinical evidence, locally led, and for the benefit of patients. And importantly, he says, . . . [Full text of this article]

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