David wrote:
>Brave words from the BMA Chairman in News Review (p.33) today about Blair &
>Brown's manipulation of the DDRB, "This is totally unacceptable". Agreed
>100% but has he a contingency plan when Dobbo, vibrator buzzing in pocket,
>sends him on his way - as he will? There is little point in brave words -
>we've all had experience of those from GMSC over the years - unless they
>can be backed up by action when the time comes. Who bets that there is
>no backup behind the words?
I bet there is NO backup and probably no point in even trying given the
outcomes of our "independent" pay reviews over the past 15 years that I've
been in GP. This is surely an area where the HMG majority will just walk all
over us again and if we can't be united over the PCG issue then why bother
over whether our pay becomes set before or after the DDRB makes its
recommendation. Why don't we just negotiate an annual inflation neutral
settlement and do away with this "fury, outrage, anger or total
unacceptability", i.e. the various phrases that the Press probably use on a
rotational basis year by year :-(
What next?
Here's something that I've seen very little mention of recently yet has just
resurfaced in East Kent - Post Payment Verification. On two consecutive days
we received letters, firstly from the HA announcing its protocol for
implementing the PPV checks (with no mechanism for obtaining patient
consent) and I quote from the letter:
"If a Practice refuses to co-operate with the Health Authority by, for
example, not allowing reasonable access to practice-held records within the
terms of this protocol, the Health Authority will contact the Local Medical
Committee and seek its assistance in resolving the problem as quickly and
amicably as possible. The Health Authority reserves the right to take such
further action as it deems necessary, including in extreme cases the
suspension of further payments of items of service claims to the practice
concerned until the matter is resolved"
Next day there followed a letter from the LMC enclosing a copy of another
letter from the Legal Services department of the Association of Community
Health Councils quoting:
" ... the practice of disclosing patient records without the consent of the
patient, to persons carrying out audit exercises who are not involved in the
treatment or care of the patient, amounts to a breach of the legal duty of
confidentiality."
" ....Consequently a patient who discovers that his notes have been
disclosed in a form which contains identifiable personal information,
without his/her consent to a third party, be it to researchers, staff
engaged in pharmaceutical or financial audit, has grounds to commence
proceedings for breach of confidentiality and to seek damages"
The letter from the LMC states :
"The LMC cannot advise you as to whether to comply with the post payment
verification visits or not."
Well - that's just great, eh?
How can our representatives have allowed us to be placed in such a
situation?
We're not only shafted - we get a choice of position too :-((
Regards
Peter
Dr Peter Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
GP, Broadstairs <http://www.albionrd.demon.co.uk>
Medical Manager EKDOC <http://www.ekdoc.com>
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