Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
There are nearly 8,000 GP practices in England, employing more than 35,000 doctors.
But despite the NHS being perhaps the most information-rich health system in the world, we have little clue which are good and which are bad.
Poor performance - as one influential doctor put it to me - has been "tolerated" for far too long. Until now.
What the Care Quality Commission is trying to do with its failure regime for GP practices marks uncharted territory for the health service.
Yes, GPs have always in theory faced the prospect of being closed down if they are not up to scratch, but the reality is that that process has taken place behind the scenes.
The management bodies that hold GP contracts - NHS England since last year and before that primary care trusts - have always been able to terminate them. But no records are held centrally about where or how often this has been done.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28775988
But despite the NHS being perhaps the most information-rich health system in the world, we have little clue which are good and which are bad.
Poor performance - as one influential doctor put it to me - has been "tolerated" for far too long. Until now.
What the Care Quality Commission is trying to do with its failure regime for GP practices marks uncharted territory for the health service.
Yes, GPs have always in theory faced the prospect of being closed down if they are not up to scratch, but the reality is that that process has taken place behind the scenes.
The management bodies that hold GP contracts - NHS England since last year and before that primary care trusts - have always been able to terminate them. But no records are held centrally about where or how often this has been done.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28775988