START TRANSCRIPT

JH: If somebody, if a large enough group of people, in a given town or given area, say “”we don’t want our hospital to close, we don’t want a polyclinic” (or whatever it happens to be), then they will not only be listened to, but their wishes will be acted upon? Is that what you are saying?

LD: Absolutely, and these are the pledges and these are the safeguards that I have published well ahead of the nine different reports which we expect to start next Monday.

JH: Well that could be done on a strictly numerical basis couldn’t it? So if you were serious about this, what you have to do presumably is to send out a little polling form or something to everybody in the area, and say tick box A or tick box B? That’s not what you are proposing is it?

LD: No I’m not. What I’m suggesting, any local change has to have a purpose. That purpose has to be based on outcomes – saving lives, whatever that quality happens to be. And then, that needs a consultation with the users of the service: the patients, the public. If there is a dispute, then that dispute, you could bring in an arbitrator, a clinical arbitrator, to resolve that local dispute.

JH: right, so in the end, the decision will still be taken by either the clinicians who run the hospital or the service, or by the local politicians. In other words, I am struggling a bit to discover what’s changed.

LD: What’s changed, we need to be, as clinicians, we need to stand up there on the platform, engage the patients, explain why changes need to occur, if it’s based on quality. Maybe we haven’t done it before; we need to do more of it in the future. John, I’ve been in clinical practice for 20 years, I have yet to meet a patient, in whom you describe what change you might be making in your practice, what you may be offering as a treatment which will compromise their care, for them to accept it. That is not the world we are living in. We are living in a world in which quality matters and healthcare quality should matter to all of us.

END TRANSCRIPT

START LMC PRESS RELEASE

Worcestershire Local Medical Committee Ltd

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________­­­­­­­­__________

St. Stephens Surgery • Adelaide Street • Redditch • Worcs. B97 4AL

Tel: 01527 65082 Fax: 01527 61211

Email: info@worcslmc.co.uk Web: www.worcslmc.co.uk

Secretary: Dr. Simon Parkinson – sparkinson@worcslmc.co.uk

Executive Officer: Michelle Hallahan – mhallahan@worcslmc.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: Thursday 15^th May 2008

The LMC seeks public consultation on GP Led Health Centre

In the light of Lord Darzi’s clear comments on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme about public consultation, Worcestershire’s Local Medical Committee has written to the PCT and the Strategic Health Authority today asking if they will indeed consult on the GP Led Health Centre that is planned for Worcester City. Apparently adverts have been placed already and we believe that this is inappropriate as the limited discussion that has taken place has not led to this proposal receiving support. The Local Medical Committee remains of the view that £1.2m per annum is being spent unwisely on a service that is inappropriate for this county. We are urging the PCT and the Strategic Health Authority to think again in the light of the comments from the Health Minister.

True consultation has not occurred in this case.

Notes to Editors:

For further information, and to request an interview, please contact Dr Simon Parkinson on 01527 65082.

END PRESS RELEASE

What a load of waffle Lord Darzi spouts. As you can see from the above WLMC press release, no consultation has occurred whatsoever.

I’d like to draw your attention to the last line of the transcript; “We are living in a world in which quality matters and healthcare quality should matter to all of us.” I couldn’t agree more. I hope you do too.