At the NAPC national GP-led Commissioning Conference on 10th May I asked Health Secretary Andrew Lansley a question. I wanted to inform him of ESyDoc’s progress and to ask him to explore what additional things we could do in order to take on accountability and facilitate our development.
We struggled to become a first wave pathfinder as we were not sufficiently financially challenged and yet we have achieved:
- A nationally recognised collaborative COPD project now expanded into NHS Improvement Lung/Asthma project.
- Invested significant time, energy and money to develop invest to save plans.
- Latest PCT figures rank ESyDoc as the top performing consortia despite being the second most deprived in Surrey.
- Formed an LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) on the basis of the then PCT guidance and now learnt that it is not the vehicle to enable us to take on delegated responsibility from the PCT.
I wanted to express how keen we are and how the Department of Health guidance was altering our progress and focusing attention on process and away from the clinical issues and improving patient care; also to share my frustration and get clarity about the process from the top. I would like to know how we can, not why we can’t.
I was delighted and boosted by Andrew Lansley’s response and I have now written to him directly.
Dr Joe McGilligan,
ESyDoc Chairman
