A senior GP leader has resigned from her role as a commissioning champion for the Royal College of General Practitioners, citing the damage that the government’s policy will inflict on primary care in England and the role of GPs as advocates for patients.

Helena McKeown, a member of the RCGP’s council and a GP in Salisbury, told Pulse magazine that she had become “too disillusioned” with commissioning to continue to promote the policy. She would focus instead on exposing “what GPs are being set up to do,” she said.

The royal college launched its Centre for Commissioning in December 2010 to help GPs and the new GP consortiums develop the skills, competences, and expertise needed for commissioning and improving the quality of services for patients.1

McKeown, who also chairs the BMA’s committee on community care, told Pulse …