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Family Doctor Services

It is a state of total confusion—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) talks from a sedentary position about denying centralisation, but we know that there is a central imposition of a GP-led health centre in every primary care trust. There is no option; all trusts have to introduce them. I had discussions with the East of England strategic health authority, which made it clear that every PCT must have such a centre. In the case of Norfolk, for example, I was told by the GPs I met last week that the PCT has not yet even completed its review of its estate—the buildings it owns—to ensure that it makes the most effective use of that estate. Suddenly, however, because the Government told the trust to do so, it has stopped doing that work and is now having to focus on the introduction of a polyclinic—sorry, a health centre—in Norwich. Introducing a centre of that sort in Norwich does nothing for rural disadvantaged people who have no access to a car and have poor public transport. It also does nothing for the greatly disadvantaged community in Thetford, which has a low income level and has a great need to improve primary care services. The imposition from Whitehall of a GP-led health centre in the centre of Norwich will do absolutely nothing for those people. That is what frustrates so many.