10.12.15
Primary care underspends used to plug hospital deficits – NHS Alliance
Underspends in NHS England’s primary care budget have been used to cover the financial deficits in secondary care highlighting the “deep and “historical contempt for primary care”, the outgoing chair of NHS Alliance has claimed.
Addressing leaders from across the NHS, Dr Michael Dixon (pictured), who is also a member of NHE’s editorial board, said that NHS England’s primary care budget was underspent this year, despite primary care’s “desperate plea” for people and resources at a time when it has lost 25% of its share of the NHS budget.
“It is utterly unbelievable that NHS England’s primary care budget should have been underspent, and used to cover financial deficits in secondary care,” he said.
“General practice has already carried a disproportionate share of austerity at a time when it has been expected to extend its role. Hospital deficits were eventually paid off. You can’t have deficits in general practice; practices simply go bust.”
After 18 years at the helm of NHS Alliance, Dr Dixon added that secondary care still takes all the top positions, whether it’s “occasional ministerial positions, medical director of the NHS, clinical leadership at the Department of Health, or even non-hereditary peers in the House of Lords”.
The audience, which also featured health secretary Jeremy Hunt, also heard him criticise the focus of the NHS on accelerating the number of specialists compared to GPs.
Thanking Dr Dixon’s contribution to the NHS, Hunt said: “People call it the Stevens plan, but a lot of it is the Dixon plan. It’s the NHS Alliance plan, it’s the plan to put GPs at the heart of the transformation that we now want to happen, and you’re going to have the luxury of being able to watch from a little bit afar, to see whether we get it right or not.”