---

Family Doctor Services

My hon. Friend raises an important point. In the course of the GP contract negotiations, the move towards a quality and outcomes framework had real potential, but as the National Audit Office report published earlier this year set out starkly, in order to try and secure agreement with general practitioners the Government took a large amount of that money out of the pot and put it into the minimum practice income guarantee. Over the intervening years, the system of remuneration for GPs has not impacted on list size and need as it should have done, which would have helped the most deprived areas, nor has it incentivised more doctors to come into those areas. The Government's and everyone else's purpose in starting to negotiate the new GP contract back in 2002 was to deal with problems of recruitment and retention. Recruitment in deprived areas was most difficult and it remains difficult. The Government's response should have been to deal with that problem, not to try and impose a solution everywhere else. By encouraging PCTs to offer new practices in under-doctored areas, the Government are saying now the same thing as they said in 2006 in the community White Paper, which we supported throughout. However, it is wholly wrong for them to seek to impose a polyclinic system in London and across the country, including in the most under-doctored areas, which would deprive many people of access to GP surgeries in their local neighbourhood.