Family Doctor Services — 11 Nov 2004 at 16:15

I beg to move,

That this House places the highest importance on the role of general medical practitioners, working with allied healthcare professionals, constituting a family doctor service; regards this service as the lynch-pin of NHS primary care services and central to public health promotion; appreciates that general practitioners are best placed to provide care for patients, to facilitate their access to NHS services and to manage care of those suffering from chronic diseases and co-morbidities; is concerned by the continuing level of general practitioner vacancies and workload pressures; regrets the Government's devaluation of the family doctor's role in favour of an emphasis on diverse means of access to the NHS; deplores the failure to maintain the out-of-hours service as a general practitioner-led service and the loss of Saturday morning surgeries; calls on the Government to ensure that the NHS Programme for information technology delivers the choice of suppliers and functionality which general practitioners need; further regards the Government's abandonment of general practitioner fundholding and commissioning as a severe misjudgement and urges the reintroduction of the benefits of fundholding through the adoption of practice-led commissioning; and believes that the development of family doctor-led commissioning, alongside increasing patient choice, offers the best means of delivering an effective NHS which is responsive to patients' needs and wishes.

I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"welcomes the increase in general practitioner numbers; supports the expansion of primary care provision through walk-in centres and NHS Direct to meet the needs of patients; welcomes the new arrangements for the National Health Service out-of-hours services that provide an opportunity to integrate primary, secondary and social care, whilst guaranteeing high quality urgent care across the country including Saturday mornings and improving the quality of life for general practitioners; acknowledges the progress made on the NHS Programme for information technology; supports the introduction of practice-based commissioning which fosters clinical engagement whilst mitigating the worst excesses of general practitioner fundholding; and believes that the general development of practice-based commissioning will deliver improved patient care."

Question put, That the original words stand part of the Question:-

The House divided: Ayes 118, Noes 286.

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |