In March, we agreed changes with the British Medical Association to reward practices that extend their opening to provide weekend or evening appointments. I am pleased to tell the House that 21 primary care trust areas have already achieved our aim that at least 50 per cent. of surgeries should offer extended hours.
But would not the creation of 152 GP-led surgeries, open from 8 am until 8 pm, seven days a week, provide greater choice and better health opportunities for patients—[Interruption.]—rather than leading to closures in Nottinghamshire, or anywhere else in the country, as the British Medical Association suggests?
I agree with my hon. Friend, who makes an important point. I heard some Opposition Members shout, “Not in rural areas.” Yet Cornwall is one of the counties that has already achieved the 50 per cent. target—indeed, it has exceeded 90 per cent. However, some GPs may not want to open in the evenings or at weekends, so we believe that it is perfectly proper that patients in those areas are not denied the ability to remain registered with their GP, if they wish, and to see a GP in the evening or at weekends. They will value that greatly and not understand the Conservatives’ promise to reverse the policy.
I strongly support the idea that GPs’ surgeries should open for longer. In the main, GPs are popular with their patients, are trusted and know the details of the conditions of those on their panel. However, I am reserved about the Government’s proposal to open polyclinics, which I believe would be an expensive duplication of GPs’ services and undermine the position of GP surgeries. Will not the Government reconsider their proposal and perhaps try to work through GPs to extend services, so that the services that people want are available in the evening and at weekends?
The hon. Gentleman is rarely known to be reserved in the House, but I welcome his support for our extended hours drive and invite him to discuss it with his Front Benchers. As I said, they promised to reverse the policy and give the BMA a veto over extended hours. The last time we had an exchange on the subject, the hon. Gentleman highlighted the success and popularity of a GP-led health centre that provides an excellent service in his constituency. We are not imposing anything on any primary care trust, but simply saying that, in every PCT area, there should be a GP-led health centre, such as the one of which the hon. Gentleman is fond in his constituency, for patients whose surgeries are not open in the evenings or at weekends to give them the choice.
In the city of Wolverhampton, some GPs have tried extended opening and found little demand, whereas another surgery is opening on Saturday mornings to trial the policy. Is there any quantitative evidence from the west midlands—or, indeed, the city of Wolverhampton—that might give us a better steer on potential demand from patients for the extended hours service?
Every survey that we conduct of what the public think is the most important improvement that we can make to build on the improvements that we have already made in the health service shows that people want to be able to see a GP at a more convenient time to the patient—at weekends or in the evenings. My hon. Friend’s local primary care trust may not yet have hit the 50 per cent. target, but neighbouring Heart of Birmingham PCT has, with 75 per cent. of GP practices already offering extended hours. It is popular, the public tell us that they like it, and the GPs, once they start doing it, also find it popular.
Does the Minister agree that it is not so much the hours that GPs are available that are important, but the services that each GP practice offers? Is he aware that the White Paper on pharmacy proposed taking away the ability of GP practices in market towns such as Thirsk to dispense? That will reduce the services that they can offer. There is no point in the Minister of State, the right hon. Member for Bristol, South (Dawn Primarolo) shaking her head. I met representatives of GP practices and I also declare an interest as a GP’s daughter and a GP’s sister. We want to keep dispensing services in rural practices.
My right hon. Friend was shaking her head because she wrote the pharmacy White Paper and she knows that it does not do what the hon. Lady suggests. The hon. Lady also knows that we are consulting on all aspects of the White Paper, and I invite her to make a formal representation as part of the consultation.
Does the Minister know that, in areas such as Leek, which is a market town, GPs already successfully offer an out-of-hours service from 10 am until 2 pm, on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays? Is not it time that other GPs followed that good practice and recognised that patients want not only high quality but more accessible services to fit in with their lifestyles?
I agree with my hon. Friend, who has given a good example of what happens in an area when one or two GPs start offering the service to patients: other GPs quickly follow suit because they discover that it is popular. It is extraordinary that some hon. Members still believe that, although it is fine for people in some parts of the country to be able to see a GP in the evenings and at weekends, that service should not be available to everybody. Labour Members believe that it should be.
It seems extraordinary that the Minister is claiming credit for the Government reinstating a service that they removed three or four years ago. I want to press him further on the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) made. She was absolutely right to say that access to GPs and primary care is about more than just opening hours. Will the Minister acknowledge that the proposals in the pharmacy White Paper that potentially remove the right of GP practices to dispense are causing immense concern both to service providers and, more importantly, to their patients? In consultation with the Minister responsible—the right hon. Member for Bristol, South (Dawn Primarolo), who is whispering in his ear—will he confirm that there will be no changes to the control of entry regime without a full, published, comprehensive and genuine consultation that takes into account the needs of communities that use GP dispensing services and pays particular regard to the proposed changes in the White Paper to the imposed distance criteria?
The hon. Gentleman is doing the same thing as a lot of his hon. Friends—confusing out-of-hours services with extended hours. I am pleased if he is reversing the Conservatives’ policy and saying that they will not reverse the provision for extended hours, because I suspect that he will find shortly that extended hours will be very popular with the public when they begin to access to them. I suspect that the policy is not one that the Conservatives will abandon as quickly as they have most of their other policies.
On the pharmacy White Paper, I have already said in answer to the hon. Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) that there will be a consultation. Our view is that the hon. Gentleman is wrong in his interpretation of the White Paper’s impact, but he is welcome to make his views felt during the consultation.