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Family Doctor Services

A moment ago, the Secretary of State said that he pleaded guilty to making a major investment in primary care, and without question the extra money is welcome. However, he is not pleading guilty to contradicting his welcome words of 4 July last year, when he said that he would give the NHS a"““sustained period of organisational and financial stability””" and that"““there will be no further centrally dictated, top-down restructuring””.— [Official Report, 4 July 2007; Vol. 462, c. 962.]" If he wants to realise those aims, why does he not allow local communities to decide how best to achieve the objectives, which he rightly identifies, that will meet the needs of deprived communities, instead of having this centrally dictated, top-down restructuring, which could produce the same sort of ridiculous results as the independent treatment centres that have wasted millions of pounds in Cornwall?