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Family Doctor Services

The services are proving popular not only in London and Devon. In South Cambridgeshire, the constituents of the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) will get a new GP-led health centre in St. Neots. The Sawston medical centre already offers integrated services, including minor operations and audiology as well as general practice. In Eddisbury, the constituency of my opposite number, the Dene Drive primary care centre has three GP practices, which offer integrated services under one roof. [Interruption.] From a sedentary position, the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) admits to opening it in February. Sheringham, in the constituency of the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), houses eight GPs, with expanded services, and it recently benefited from a £1.2 million extension under the Government's LIFT programme. In response to a question from the hon. Gentleman, it is not true that the money was conditional on its being spent on extended opening, as he alleged. As part of our current negotiations with the BMA about the new contract arrangements, we have agreed to invest up to £105 million in new GP services. That will include money to fund the pay recommendations. We reached broad agreement with the BMA on the new services, but I am afraid that I cannot announce them to the House today because the BMA is still challenging the pay recommendations. However, I share the hope of the hon. Member for North Norfolk that we can make a positive announcement along the lines that he said he would like. The hon. Gentleman is right about the minimum practice income guarantee. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made clear in his opening remarks, we will tackle that when Lord Darzi publishes his final report in the summer. I have asked Westminster primary care trust for an explanation of the arrangements that the hon. Gentleman described at Buckingham palace and Westminster school, but he will accept that they may result from the minimum income guarantee rather than anything less acceptable. The hon. Gentleman knows that we have been involved in an intensive six-month period of work on practice-based commissioning to encourage better commissioning. The primary care trusts are now responsible for ensuring that practices are properly supported, and we will hold them to account to ensure that they give practices the necessary support to realise practice-based commissioning, to which we remain committed. The motion must be one of the most extraordinary motions on health tabled by the Conservative party. It follows an astonishing speech by the Leader of the Opposition on Monday, which advocated giving GPs a veto over more convenient opening times, and a Conservative-supported GP petition, which states:"““We…believe that we should be free to determine the opening hours, size and locations of our practices””." The Confederation of British Industry described the Leader of the Opposition's speech as perplexing. It stated:"““Mr. Cameron's speech contains disappointing echoes of the arguments of those who have long opposed any reform of the…public sector””." The speech and the motion could have been written at BMA headquarters. The motion is accompanied by an equally ludicrous press release from Conservative central office, with the headline,"““Labour's secret blueprint for polyclinics””." The Tories claim to have uncovered guidance that amounted to a threat to family doctors' services throughout the country. The only problem is that my fellow Health Minister, Lord Darzi, announced the guidance in a speech at a national conference in December and it has been publicly available on the Department's website ever since. Far from being a threat to family doctors' services, our plans will provide 265 new GP practices and GP-led health services throughout the country, on top of the existing 8,500 GP practices, with £250 million of new money. A new health centre that is open from 8 am until 8 pm, seven days a week, will be set up in every PCT area, and 103 new GP practices will be established in 50 of the least well-served areas of the country. The public say that the ability to see a GP at a time that is more convenient to them is the one further improvement that they would like in the health service. With record investment going into GP surgeries, we on the Government Benches do not believe it unreasonable of the public to expect that improvement, and that is what our proposals will deliver. It is extraordinary, although not surprising, that the Conservative party is aligning itself so firmly with the forces of conservatism against improving health services for the public. That might curry it some favour with the BMA, but most people can spot producer interest capture when they see it. What an astonishing—and from our point of view welcome—set of affairs that the Conservatives should be positioning themselves so firmly on the wrong side of the health argument. That is why their motion will be defeated. I commend our amendment to the House. Question put, That the original words stand part of the Question:— The House divided: Ayes 211, Noes 306.