Aug 2 2004
In a letter to the Minister for Health and Social Services Jane Hutt, Dr Andrew Dearden - the chairman the BMA's GP Committee for Wales - has expressed his bitter disappointment in the breakdown of negotiations between the BMA and the Welsh Assembly Government on the future of community hospitals in Wales
Dr Dearden said: "In the past few months I have spoken to numerous GPs across Wales who are involved in community hospitals - some for decades. Many of them want to be able to continue to work within community hospitals as they enjoy the work and feel that they are directly contributing to their communities. They asked for a national agreement that would safeguard current patient services and allow a planned review and development of these services in the future."
The new GP contract, which started in April this year, is designed to improve the level and quality of care received by patients. The new Quality and Outcomes Framework emphasises health promotion and disease prevention. It will require a great deal of effort over the next few years to raise the quality of care to the levels aspired to by GPs throughout Wales.
"It is this new work that has made practices look at both their commitments to their practice and patients as well as to their local community hospitals. Many feel unable to commit sufficient time to both their patients and community hospitals, and do justice to both under the current arrangements," he added.
"Therefore, a major part of the desired agreement was to be a nationally agreed system of resources available to practices covering community hospitals, modernising the way they are funded and bringing extra resources into the practice, allowing them to take on extra staff and doctors."
The Welsh Assembly Government has told BMA Cymru Wales that it feels unable to agree such a national deal for community hospitals, in spite of having done so for hospital juniors, consultants and GPs within the past few years.
Dr Dearden added: "GPC Wales feels that the failure to agree a national structure places some community hospitals at significant risk of closure over the next 1-2 years. We now fear for the future of many community hospitals as a direct result of the Welsh Assembly Government's decision not to seek a national deal to safeguard current service provision and allow the future development of the services that these community hospitals could provide for vulnerable patients."