RATE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR GP
Under new Government plans patients are to be allowed to comment on the performance of GPs on an NHS website for the first time.
The project is aimed at improving standards through competition, with patients invited to post messages about their experiences on NHS Choices.
According to the Department of Health, remarks will be moderated to ensure nothing defamatory is included and GPs practices as a whole would be commented on rather than individual GPs being identified.
Health minister Ben Bradshaw said he hoped the consumer feedback will work for healthcare in a similar way to Trip Adviser for the travel industry or Amazon for the book trade.
A Department of Health spokesman said it was hoped patients would be able to submit GP performance details "by the end of the summer".
But doctors' representatives expressed concerns that the online opinion boards could mislead patients by acting as a popularity contest rather than offering accurate information about medical skills.
The GP information-sharing scheme follows the introduction of patient comments about hospitals on NHS Choices last April.
The British Medical Association accused the Government of not thinking the plan through properly and allowing consumerism to come first.
Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, said: "A website on which people can slander or praise irresponsibly is the wrong approach.
"Patients should be able to choose a doctor, but I don't think this is the way to do it."
Comparing it to Strictly Come Dancing by tempting GPs to encourage patients to "vote" for them, he added: "I think this has everything to do with consumerism and it has not been thought through well.
"I am happy for people to praise or criticise their doctor, but this is not the way professionals should interact with their patients.
"It has a great potential to be misleading."
(Abridged from an article in the Daily Telegraph)
jollyweez
It is easier in the USA. If we don't like our doctor then we are free to keep changing until we find the one who appears to be on our wavelength. My mother had no choice in the UK. She had to submit to any physician sent her way, (thanks to NHS.) I would not really see any improvement if a patient takes the trouble to comment on the website. We could bet that nothing will change.