Concern Over GPs' Links To Private Healthcare Firms

On 1st April 2013, CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups) will become key bodies in the NHS as a result of the coalition's restructuring of the health service. Primary Care Trusts face abolition, and CCGs will decide who should provide healthcare for England's 60 million patients.
However, concerns have been raised after it was revealed in an investigation by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that 36% of the 1,179 family doctors on a board of one of the 211 Clinical Commissioning Groups in England have an interest in private healthcare firms.
This has sparked fears that high public trust in GPs could be jeopardised by family doctors having private healthcare interests while also working as GPs in the NHS.
A code of conduct drawn up by the NHS Commissioning Board, which oversees and funds CCGs, says board members should not be involved in decisions from which they could ultimately make money. A spokeswoman has said that it expects to "shortly" publish statutory guidance to CCGs on managing such situations.
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