Dr John Chisholm was the Chairman of the General Practitioners Committee, the trade union negotiating body for GPs, throughout the negotiations with the government over the new GP contract.   He and his committee used every opportunity to persuade, if not cajole, GPs to vote for his contract even though, at the time of voting, it was incompletely negotiated and unpriced.  There always semed to be an unholy rush to get it completed as other articles on this site, written contemporaneously, indicate

It was represented to GPs as the ultimate in perfection.  It has become the ultimate, meaning the final one for British general practice as we know it.

I was a member of the National BMA Council throughout the negotiating period and was able to watch closely, if not influence, what was going on.  If Dr Chisholm had not promoted the new contract so vigorously, even to the point of misrepresentation almost, and, also, if he had not left NHS general practice for private practice, maybe I would not have written this item.   But he did and the current treatment by the government of GPs angers me.

I believe Dr John Chisholm, currently benefiting from private practice, should immediately be invited to give his opinion as to why this contract which was so misrepresented and oversold by himself and his committee, even before it was complete, is proving to be so disastrous.

I believe that he should be given the opportunity to apologise for a contract which he and his colleagues spawned and which is inevitably leading to the demise of British general practice.

I believe that he should be reminded that the contract he promoted so vigorously has led to a zero pay-rise (effectively a series of large pay cuts) for three years; that it has led to increasing privatisation of general practice (as he well knows); that that is being used as a weapon against GPs; that it has led to GPs being increasingly under the absolute power of PCTs and HMG; that GPs who do not follow PCT diktat have been threatened with a cancelling of their contract; that GPs are being compelled to obey government target aspirations to the detriment of patient care; that there is now gross instability within general practice and that GP morale is even lower than it was before nGMS.

I believe that other GPs could add massively to this list.

I further believe that John Chisholm as author of nGMS and, as such, fully aware of what he was doing at the time, (I assume) should be invited, at an early opportunity, to publicly explain the way out of the current mess his previous efforts have led general practice into.

He might also explain why, when the contract was implemented, he and others, almost immediately headed for private practice. Did that not demonstrate an amazing lack of faith in his new nGMS contract?

COI: None, because I retired from GP immediately before nGMS was implemented but I was a member of BMA Council throughout the critical period (and before) and could never get Dr Chisholm to answer questions re Plan B, in Open Council or anywhere else for that matter.

The time has come for his response.

(21/12/07)