Sheffield NHS Spending Cuts, PCT Scrapped, Which GP's Next?

By: N_Walayat

The new Coalition Government was apparently so impressed by the performance of the NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCT's) that as part of its cost cutting austerity plan it intends to scrap ALL PCT's in favour of GP Consortia's directly managing patient treatment commissioning (the process could take 2-3 years to implement). This means Sheffield NHS PCT who's achievements include employing 400 bureaucrats in a new multi-million pound headquarters is destined to disappear from Sheffield's health landscape.

However whilst the media has been focused on the news of scrapping of all NHS PCT's, the flip side of the coin lies in the consolidation of GP practices into GP consortiums in an attempt to introduce real competition between surgeries for patients which means that the less performing GP surgeries in cities such as Sheffield could disappear as they will be unable to compete for patients in a more market orientated value for money environment due to their inability to provide health services to the satisfaction of a large % of their patients.

The anticipated changes are set against the current system which contrary to what the population believes GP's are Independant PRIVATE contractors to the NHS WITHOUT COMPETITION. GP's are basically a law onto themselves, and in the vast majority of cases totally unaccountable where complaining against GP's amounts to a total waste of time which is why the NHS is riddled with inept GP's as there is no real mechanism to get rid of those that are not up to the job, an issue which market forces will attempt to address.

NHS PCT's across England usually present data that paints a picture of near uniform healthcare delivery across all GP surgeries and wider health services, which does not match the wide disparity in actual patient experience between GP practices. Thankfully the Department of Health has provided a solution to this lack of accurate data with the UK GP Patient Survey's which for the year 2009-10 entailed 5.5 million detailed questionnaires being sent out to patients across England of which 2.17 million were returned.

For the city of Sheffield a total of 65,339 questionnaires were sent out to the patients of Sheffield's 92 GP surgeries of which 27,380 were returned from which detailed results were compiled as listed below in terms of Overall Patient Satisfaction at the quality of health care received which resulted in 24 or 26% managing to achieve a rating of 95% or higher, which given the importance of health care should be the minimum goal for ALL GP surgeries, next 43 (46%) of Sheffield GP surgeries managed to attain a patient satisfaction level of 90-94% of their patients, 19 (20%) between 85% and 89%, followed by 6 GP surgeries scraping the bottom of the barrel, with one coming in as low as 68%.

Therefore under a more competitive GP health servicing market as consortia compete against one another for patients, those surgeries that rank at the bottom that prove unable in satisfying and thus retaining patients, should find themselves forced to merge and to restructure with new staff employed so as to ensure that the consortia's are better able to compete against one another for patients. This also means for the reforms to work then there must be at least 2 competing consortia in cities such as Sheffield, and preferably more other wise the reforms will FAIL and result in even worse patient health care experience as there will be NO incentive for GP's to treat patients but every incentive to deliver as much as possible of the £100 billion NHS budget into the back pockets of GP's which is probably what GP's expect to happen as occurred following the 2003 Labour GP contracts as illustrated by the below GP Pay graph that contributed to the 2009 MP expenses scandal as GP pay took off into the stratosphere whilst MP's watched on in envy therefore triggering the expenses abuse.

The following table lists Sheffield's bottom 5 GP surgeries in terms of Patient's Overall Level of Satisfaction as per the UK GP Patient Survey 2009-10

Which compares against Sheffield's Top 5 ranked GP Surgeries.

Therefore the proposed scrapping of Sheffield PCT and resulting formation of GP consortia's should see a consolidation in the number of Sheffield GP practices, which ultimately should result in an improvement in health service delivery, and therefore result in better patient satisfaction for especially the bottom ranking areas of the city.

Results For All 92 Sheffield GP Surgeries Ranked in Order of Overall Patient Satisfaction of Care Received

Data Source - http://results.gp-patient.co.uk/report/main.aspx

Source: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article22611.html

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright © 2005-10 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and the housing market and he is the author of the NEW Inflation Mega-Trend ebook that can be downloaded for Free. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 500 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.