Clause 27 - PMS and PDS lists
Health and Social Care Bill
5:30 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
One of the delicious ironies of serving on the Committee at this moment in history is that the casual visitor from Mars might have difficulty in identifying which Front-Bench spokesman was the product of the party of closed shops, trade union power and overbearing centralisation, and which was the representative of the radical, libertarian, free-market right.
We have taken the unusual step of referring in the Bill to consultation with the BMA for the purposes of the clause. I can tell the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge that that is not without precedent, because there is a similar measure in the 1999 Act, although it is unusual. The issue is one of great sensitivity among members of the profession, so we want to consult them, and that is recognised in the Bill. We intend to mirror, for PMS, the regulations across the different lists. It would not be satisfactory for GPs to have a different set of criteria on which to be judged unsuitable or for a different process to be in place.
There is a wider issue. A distinction must be drawn between the common or garden use of the term ``to consult'', which means seek the views of or hear the opinions of, and the formal definition for negotiating purposes, which is what the amendments would bestow.
Our view is that PMS is a voluntary, local contract, entered into by GPs at local level. It is perfectly appropriate for GPs who are considering doing that to be represented by the BMA through the local medical committee. Indeed, during the passage of the previous Act, we changed the legislation to enable PMS GPs to be members of the local medical committee and to be represented by them. Because of the voluntary nature of that contract, it would not be right for us to agree a framework in which the general practitioners committee nationally could determine the contract that someone could enter into at local level through his formal negotiating rights.
That said, we are anxious to work with the BMA and a range of other organisations for the successful development of PMS. We have set up a PMS implementation group.