September 13th 2024

By Ailsa Colquhoun

DDA publishes two think-pieces

The DDA has published two think-pieces:

In response to the Lord Darzi investigation and in defence of the independent contractor model, Dr West has written to the Times newspaper. He points out Lord Darzi's conclusion that general practices have the best financial discipline in the health service family. He also agrees with the conclusion that complex GP contracts can mean that doing the right thing for patients can require doing the wrong thing for GP income. He summarises: “That cannot be right."

In response to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change report: Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State, Dr West calls for patients before systems. He concludes that there are three possible improvements for GP:

• Empower GPs to manage uncertainty, provide holistic care and support patients to make decisions about their healthcare.
• Recreate a sense of GP as a part of the community.
• Give practices local control to provide the services their community needs.

Read the think-pieces