Media Relations: What the papers say - 'Supersurgeries' plans unravelling

PR Week UK, Friday, 13 June 2008, 12:00am,

The introduction of polyclinics, proposed by junior health minister Lord Darzi's report on NHS reform, was dubbed the Government's 'PR war with GPs' (Pulse, 9 June).

Research foundation King's Fund reported that people in rural areas 'could travel longer distances for no improvement in care' (BBC, 5 June). The British Medical Association dubbed the plan 'unproven, crude and expensive' (Nursing Times, 6 June). It was backed by the Tories, who complained that 'patients could be forced to travel three times as far to see their GP' (Daily Mail, 9 June).

Despite the benefits that longer opening hours and access to more services would bring, reports highlighted fears that polyclinics would 'end the personal relationship between a patient and a GP' (The Observer, 8 June). Health secretary Alan Johnson insisted that the Government would not 'force any one model of primary care' (Independent on Sunday, 9 June). But shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: 'Labour's plans are unravelling by the minute' (Daily Telegraph, 9 June).

Analysis conducted by Echo Research from data supplied to PRWeek from NewsNow.

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