Model of Healthcare Delivery

Name: GCW 11/1
Comments: The articles in HSJ show a complete change to a primary care based health service to the detriment of hospital specialities. This is a very important topic for debate.

Name: PC 12/1
Comments: The "complete change to Primary care to the detriment of hospitals" is very complex, not actually happening on the ground and may be in part a good thing. In 5 years hospital trusts may be estates managers only with various organisations providing clinical care from primary into secondary care. The Labour vision is not a bad one, its the implementation that is the problem

Name: GCW 15/1
Comments: Even if one does agree with the Labour model we do not have enough GPs to operate properly at present [c.f. Italy with double the number of GPs and France with 30% more, both with the same population as us!]

There is the very important issue of standards of healthcare.  Personally I think as the 4th largest economy we should expect a standard of care and health outcomes at least in line with other developed countries in Europe and USA.  We simply do not have anywhere near that at present.

Name: PC 15/1
Comments: : I agree. We will be a few GPs short- training places being squeezed at a time of primary care expansion. There is however the addition of non-career grade doctors who will be after relatively well paid community contracts plus consultants working in the community. Then there are unemployed EU doctors flooding in. Maybe we wont be short after all?

Labour model is far from perfect but it has merits. Execution has been appalling.
Standards are rising in some areas of medicine (target orientated ones generally) yet not in others. So how do we get to the right outcomes ?