Well, just when you thought the pantomime season was over, up pops our Primary Care Trust (PCT) with a production of its own. Sadly, this one does not star any well-known comedians, just a cast of pompous power-mad pen-pushers and number twiddlers.
They do seem to think that the C in their title stands for cash not care, but as they are heavily in debt anyway it does not seem they can manage that either.
The very idea that you can close existing and long-established GP practices and replace them with a handful of Late Shop'-style superclinics is contemptible and shows a clear misunderstanding of the concept of patient care. A doctor-patient care is based on a relationship built up over a period of time, based to a large degree on familiarity and trust. Let's face it, even in your late shop supermarket most customers prefer to stick to their favourite familiar brands. They also seem to suggest that they will be able to provide more wide-ranging services than local GP surgeries can. Now this might be an oversight on their part, but they are developing a habit of withdrawing these services themselves, using tough-guy tactics to get their own way.
Remember the excellent Birchwood Medical Centre, which the PCT tried to destroy, without ever bothering to explain properly to people their real motives for doing this? Then, despite their delicate financial status, they managed to open a training camp clinic, round the corner, at a cost of the odd few hundred grand of money they do not seem to have.
This is a plan that is more suited to a major supermarket chain and simply will not work. Maybe the esteemed PCT would be better employed by them. I think they should remember who they serve, they are public servants after all, and stop trying to mend something that is not broke.
P FLYNN Birchwood
