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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/gps-volunteer-to-take-on-new-powers.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Andrew Lansley plans to hand GPs in England the power to commission treatment" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/min-gps-volunteer-to-take-on-new-powers.jpg" alt="Andrew Lansley plans to hand GPs in England the power to commission treatment"/></a></p>
<p>Groups of GPs covering more than half the population of England have volunteered to take on new commissioning powers prior to the Government&#8217;s radical shake-up of the NHS, it has been revealed.</p>
<p>The announcement was made as a report by NHS leaders warned that the &#8220;extraordinarily risky&#8221; reforms may fail if they are not enthusiastically embraced by GPs.</p>
<p>The NHS Confederation paper described Health Secretary Andrew Lansley&#8217;s plan to hand GPs in England the power to commission £80 billion of treatment for patients &#8211; 80% of the entire health service budget &#8211; as &#8220;undoubtedly the biggest shake-up of the NHS in its history&#8221;.</p>
<p>Unless large numbers of GPs get actively involved in the new system and engage in the strategic challenges of changing their local health services, there is a danger of &#8220;potentially overwhelming&#8221; pressures leading to &#8220;widespread financial problems&#8230; sub-optimal performance and longer waiting times&#8221;, it warned.</p>
<p>In a speech on Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron will announce that a further 89 GP groups serving 28.6 million people have put themselves forward as &#8220;pathfinders&#8221; to pilot the new arrangements, bringing the total number of consortia to 141. Mr Cameron is expected to welcome the &#8220;groundswell of support from general practices that are now at the vanguard of modernising our NHS&#8221;, said the Department of Health.</p>
<p>But shadow health secretary John Healey said that the NHS Confederation report was a &#8220;big red warning light&#8221; of the dangers of the reorganisation plans, which he described as &#8220;a cocktail of instability and uncertainty laced with broken promises&#8221;.</p>
<p>Monday&#8217;s paper reports the conclusions of a summit of healthcare managers, doctors&#8217; leaders, patients groups and policy experts who met last November to discuss the implications of Mr Lansley&#8217;s proposals. Those taking part agreed that the reforms could produce &#8220;some very beneficial effects for patients and population health&#8221;, but warned that ministers had &#8220;systematically under-estimated the very significant cultural and behavioural changes required, in particular from GPs&#8221;.</p>
<p>Implementing the changes at a time when management resources are being cut by 45% and the NHS as a whole is facing its toughest financial climate for many years was &#8220;extraordinarily risky&#8221;.</p>
<p>NHS Confederation acting chief executive Nigel Edwards said the organisation backs the objectives of Mr Lansley&#8217;s reforms, but believes it is vital to analyse and manage potential risks.</p>
<p>He said: &#8220;We see real potential benefits in both moving decision-making closer to GPs and in extending the range of providers in order to drive efficiency and innovation.&#8221;</p>
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