Doctors give guarded response to £100m for GP services

Doctors' leaders have given a guarded response to the launch of a £100m ($150m) fund designed to improve GP services. The fund, announced this week in a speech to the Royal College of General Practitioners by the prime minister, Tony Blair, amounts to around £10000 per practice.

Of this, £5000 will be offered immediately to help to provide extra clinics, extend opening hours, train GP specialists, and offer better heart and cancer services. The rest will be paid as a bonus to all practices that hit local incentive targets. GPs will be able to take the bonus as a cash sum for themselves, reward practice staff, or put the money back into services for patients.

Mr Blair's speech also included the announcement of a 36 point plan to help to reduce bureaucracy in general practice.

The chairman of the BMA's General Practitioners Committee, Dr John Chisholm, welcomed the measures as recognition of the enormous pressures being placed on GPs. However, he criticised the link between the cash and the provision of extra services, saying that this could place even more demands on overworked and demoralised GPs. “GPs are already working beyond the limits. Asking them to work even longer would be inviting yet more early retirements, burnt out doctors, and ultimately a poorer service for patients,” said Dr Chisholm.

“An extra £5000 to £10000 per practice for modernisation measures will be used up very quickly—for example, in paying practice staff. Practices deserve rewards for the changes they have already made, and they will not be able to cope if additional work is required before those incentives can be received.”

Dr Chisholm did, however, welcome the moves to reduce GPs' red tape, which the government claims will offer annual savings of about 7.2 million appointments and 750000 hours of GPs' time.

The measures include removing the requirement for GPs to countersign applications for driving licences and passports, provide sick notes for jurors, and certify immunisation returns. Nurses will be allowed to provide sick notes for employees.

A lavishly illustrated 18th century book of medicinal herbs has been digitised and animated by the British Library. The book, Curious Herbal, by Elizabeth Blackwell, published in 1739, has been animated using a system known as Turning the Pages technology. The system, developed by the British Library, allows readers to simulate the action of leafing through a book and zoom in on any portion of a page.