Doctors’ call

GPs to have a say on NHS cash
OLDHAM doctors are being asked to decide how they want the borough’s new GP Commissioning Consortium (GPCC) to operate.

The new organisation, of which every Oldham doctor and practice will be a member, will take over from primary care trusts in April, 2013, and decides where nearly £300m of NHS money is spent every year.

Oldham’s 139 GPs are being consulted on a draft GPCC Strategy so a new organisation will be ready to be launched in shadow form at the end of October.

Chadderton GP Dr Ian Wilkinson is chairman of the group leading this work, the Commissioning for Oldham Group.

He said: “Our draft strategy is now out to consultation with all local GPs and it sets out our desire to create a health and social care system which makes individual, personalised services the norm.

“We want to put more support into patients looking after themselves. The majority of care is already in the community, indeed at home, and we want to see that extend.

“This is what we believe patients being in charge really means.”

Dr Wilkinson added that he wanted to reassure patients that GPs were capable of rising to the challenge.

Shauna Dixon, chief executive of NHS Oldham, said: “We’re now effectively working together to deliver what’s needed over the next two years.”