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Frank Dobson backs polyclinic vote
Anna Davis08.09.08
Former health secretary Frank Dobson is calling for a referendum on the future of the NHS in London.
The Holborn MP is leading a growing campaign against the introduction of polyclinics in Camden and is backing calls for a poll of borough residents' views.
Patients there fear they may be among the first in the capital to be affected by the new "super surgeries."
Health bosses are looking into building a polyclinic at the University College London Hospital site, which campaigners say would threaten to merge four nearby GP surgeries into the complex. The Camden trust claims that at least half of the public backs the plans.
Mr Dobson said: "We have to try and do something to convince the Government and the primary care trust that what they are doing is unpopular and wrong."
Mr Dobson said polyclinics will undermine the NHS, but added they may be suitable for other areas. He said: "Polyclinics are for areas that are under-doctored, but we are not badly doctored [in Camden].
"They are supposed to stop people from having to travel to hospital for some procedures, but here they are putting them into the hospital."
A spokeswoman for Camden Primary Care Trust said: "Camden PCT won't be holding a 'referendum'. Effectively, the polyclinics were consulted on during the Healthcare for London: Consulting the Capital, in which over 50 per cent of the public confirmed their support.
Camden PCT has already given a contract for the running of three GP surgeries to US firm United Healthcare. "No developments around the polyclinics will go ahead without formal board approval and public consultation," the spokesman added.
The University College polyclinic could affect four local surgeries: Gower Street, Gower Place, Bedford Square and Museum Street. Patients would have to go to the polyclinic for basic check-ups and prescriptions.
Candy Udwin, from Keep Our NHS Public, said: "Everyone is against privatising any GP services."
Reader views (1)
So 'over 50% support polyclinics' claims Camden PCT in support of its decision to run one at UCH. That figure presumably comes from the cross London consultation on Lord Darzi's proposals' answered by less than 5000 people across the whole capital, and less than 50 in Camden. Out of those few 51% responded positively to a loaded question about polycinics. Hardly a ringing endorsement.
In the meantime thousands in Camden have signed petitions to stop polyclinics and further privatisation of GP services. I was part of a group collecting signatures recently and people were queuing up to sign. And yet Camden is taking no notice whatsoever of those voices, preferring to quote the ?43 who told them what they wanted to hear.
The polyclinic/privatisation agenda is ideological and driven from the centre, and purports to be 'what people want' while ignoring the thousands of voices speaking out against it
Please can we have some more honesty from those who make the decisions about our healthcare? As things stand under this government the PCTs are unelected and unaccountable and apparently willing to make shameless claims about what the people of Camden want.
- Jacky Davis, London UK
