Conservative Conference Final Day - all over for another year

3 minute read time.

So after six months of planning, three Macmillan fringe events, more than 30 meetings with a range of Ministers, Parliamentarians and stakeholders, hundreds of beige canapés and one packet of aspirin, party conference season 2010 is finally at an end – well sort of.

Party conference really marks the start of the political ‘new year’.  It sets the tone for what is to come over the next 12 months and helps to focus the priorities and agendas of both the Government and campaigning organisations like Macmillan. 

As Jeremy set out in his blog on Tuesday, the health debate has been dominated by one topic at all three party conferences – Andrew Lansley’s plans to abolish Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and give their power to commission health services to GPs instead. 

 

The proposal is the most radical shake-up of the NHS since its inception and is proving hugely controversial, with many of the big NHS stakeholders already arguing that the Government has got it wrong. 

 

Others are annoyed that the coalition Government promised no more NHS reorganisations and within weeks has done just that at a time when the NHS is already dealing with significant cuts in budgets.

 

Macmillan is still deciding what we think about GP commissioning and, of course, we are asking our forum of Macmillan GPs for their insight, advice and experience.   

 

The principle that GPs better understand the health and wellbeing needs of the community in which they live is a good one. 

For this reason, GP commissioning may have a very positive effect on some aspects of cancer services, most notably around those bits of the cancer journey which are already based in the community – for example, end-of-life care. 

 

But the challenge is whether GPs will, at least initially, have the necessary understanding of the 200 or so different types of cancer – each of which can be extremely complex – to commission services effectively.  Cancer is still principally an acute sector disease dealt with by consultants and nurses in hospitals. 

 

What was clear from our party conference discussions with a range of people involved in providing or deciding on cancer services is that Cancer Networks – the bodies that provide advice and guidance to PCTs at the moment – will need to remain in some form to provide similar advice and guidance to support GPs. 

 

And as Jeremy said on Tuesday in his blog, GPs will also need to listen to cancer patients directly as well. 

 

Macmillan will be pushing these messages in our conference follow-up meetings and in discussions with Department of Health officials as the ‘meat’ is put on the GP commissioning proposals over the coming months.

 

Finally, thank you to everyone who has read and got involved in our party conference blogs over the past three weeks.  We hope you enjoyed finding out a little about what Macmillan’s Public Affairs Team has been up to.   

 

We will be continuing with a regular blog on our campaigning activities so keep an eye out for new posts soon. 

 

In the meantime, what do you think about GP commissioning?

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