Dr. Brian Osborne:

It is important to state what a primary care team is. The vast majority of consultations in general practice and clinical activity happen with a general practitioner and a practice nurse. Four or five times a month patients in the practice might need primary care team involvement, depending on different practices. The primary care team would be a GP, practice nurse, public health nurse, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and physiotherapist. That does not have to happen in the one building; it can happen via phone calls. There are already constant phone calls between GPs and public health nurses.

A recent membership study shows that more than two thirds of GPs are positively disposed to primary care teams but only 13% feel they are working effectively. Only one in four GPs wants to co-locate with a primary care team. One has to remember that GPs invested heavily in their premises before the downturn. They cannot just give that up and go into a new primary care centre paying more rent. There has also been a historic distrust and poor engagement with local area mangers. GPs have to give up two to three hours per day to attend primary care team meetings, which is not feasible with an already overstretched population.