Concerns grow over GP 'back-door privatisation' plans

Last year, Health Secretary Andy Burnham announced he wanted to abolish catchment areas that would allow patients to pick any practice, such as one nearer their workplace.

A "small minority" of patients were believed to want the right to choose a different GP or to remain with their existing doctor when they moved house.

But questions remained over how to protect services such as home visits, although Mr Burnham has given assurances that they would be.

The co-ordination of community-based services, safeguarding access for people to hospital and specialist treatment were also questioned.

Health Emergency spokesman John Lister highlighted that the proposals would offer little benefit for those most dependent on primary care services.

He also warned the plan would involve scrapping the legal obligation of GPs to offer home visits, which he argued would pave the way for privatisation.

"It seems certain that this would involve the privatisation of home visiting services, creating even more problems of ensuring quality and public scrutiny," said Mr Lister.

"We believe this policy is yet another example of back-door privatisation by new Labour.

"And at a time when the costs of bureaucracy in primary care trusts are already soaring, with a massive expansion of admin and managerial staff, this new scheme will involve even more wasteful bureaucracy and divert even more resources away from patient care."

The government wants to abolish practice boundaries by October 2010 and the Conservatives have criticised Labour for not doing so sooner.

British Medical Association (BMA) GPs' committee chairman Dr Laurence Buckman said: "We don't want free choice to come at the expense of continuity of care or for it to lead to increasing risks for vulnerable patients and a widening health inequalities."

The BMA highlighted that the total abolition of practice boundaries could have a number of unintended consequences including unfair funding arrangements for surgeries and popular practices being oversubscribed.

Patients and health professionals have 12 weeks to put forward their own ideas for how the new system could operate.