BMA responds to new Government money for "choose and book", UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 20 Jan 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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Responding to the announcement by Health Secretary, John Reid, that £95m will be made available to reward GPs for using the new "choose and book" system, Dr Richard Vautrey, the BMA's GP negotiator with responsibility for IT said:

"While we welcome any extra investment to help resolve doctors' concerns about choose and book, financial incentives will not address the fundamental problems that GPs have with the new system.

"These include the effect on the quality of the consultation and the extra time required, not only to work through the booking programme, but also the time taken to discuss with patients the confidentiality implications of their personal details being stored on a national computer system.

"We would welcome the opportunity to discuss with the Department of Health how we can allay GPs concerns about the 'choose and book' system including making available the appropriate resources for the extra work that this will create for GPs and their practices."

For more information please contact:

Christine Mundin
Tel: 020 7383 6549
Fax: 020 7383 6403
Email: cmundin@bma.org.uk

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