Warnings over Local 'Polyclinics'

11.54.36am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 29th Jul 2008

Vincent Cable, MP, has warned of the danger that the borough's very effective primary care built around GPs and the Teddington Memorial hospital will be disrupted by "government dogma" about the need for polyclinics.

He has written to Alan Johnson the Secretary of State to question why the Local Primary Care Trust is being required to go out to tender for the polyclinic option even when it is not appropriate locally.

He said: "our borough has developed a perfectly good 'hub and spoke' model based on the GP surgeries and Teddington Memorial Hospital providing a hub of support services like physiotherapy, X-ray and cancer screening. When I discussed these issues with Lord Darzi, the minister and architect of the new plans, he was highly enthusiastic about what we are doing locally, and had his first clinical appointment at Teddington. I suspect that this is another example of centralised, unstoppable, NHS bureaucracy unable to comprehend local differences".

"Lurking behind the government proposal may also be a hidden agenda to introduce a base for private health providers. The private sector may have a role where the NHS is not performing but, in this case, the NHS is performing perfectly well".