Richard Smith: The government is waging war against GPs

From the little I know of war, I believe the element of surprise to be important. This is presumably why the government has launched its blitzkrieg on general practitioners in the "week of parties" to celebrate 60 years of the NHS. While the leaders of general practice were at prayer in Westminster Abbey, the health minister Ben Bradshaw struck, accusing GPs of operating a "gentleman's agreement" in not accepting each other's patients. Bradshaw, a true Blairite, has a thirst for competition and wants to use it to raise the quality of primary care, as he believes has already happened with hospital care. The BMA has instantly denied that there are such things as gentleman's agreements, and Bradshaw won't find anything written down, which is anyway the reason for gentleman's agreements. He will, however, be able to point to... [read full story]