GPs must not be left out of clinical commissioning, warns BMA

The emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England must include ordinary GPs in their planning processes, the chairman of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee has said.

Speaking at the annual conference of local medical committees in Liverpool this week, Laurence Buckman emphasised that CCGs are membership organisations and must seek the views of the GPs in their constituent practices.

“CCGs are our creatures, not just another version of the PCTs [primary care trusts] they replace,” he said. “GPs should be telling them what to do, not the other way round.”

To facilitate GPs’ involvement, local medical committees—the longstanding groups that represent GPs—must work with CCGs and not “withdraw …