The Government is set to announce a radical shakeup of the NHS, ostensibly handing much of the NHS budget for commissioning services etc down to local GP’s.

The NHS budget currently stands at £105bn. About 80% of this is given to local health managers working for 152 primary care trusts which in turn commission services for their areas.

A Government White Paper to be published later, is expected to call for much of this to be handed to GPs working together in formal partnerships in what would be a major shake-up of the NHS structure.

Now it’s not hard to see that in wanting to meet it targeted aims, the Government want to cut back on NHS management and focus spending on frontline services, that this is an attractive option. But there are big questions and as a high risk strategy if it does not succeed then it would prove disastrous, both from a cost point of view, but more importantly for patients adversely affected.

A lot seens to hinge on being able to cut back on managers and re-invest in GP led/commissioned care instead. But isn’t there a danger that as local Primary Care Trust managers lose their jobs, local GP’s find they need to employ them instead?

And are GP’s and their surgeries equiped to handle this new regime? I should state here that I am sure my GP would excel at such an opportunity, but do all GP’s have the necessary skills? Would it impinge on the time available to see patients?

Presumably for financial reasons the Government is preferring to roll this out across the NHS, when normally such a radical shakeup would have been piloted first.

As with many great ideas it has potential, and undoubtedly makes sense on paper, but then things often look different in practice. I hope they have done their homework and extensively consulted with the medical profession otherwise there may be problems ahead.

Remember the Poll Tax?