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GPC demands CQC chief’s resignation

GPC demands CQC chief’s resignation
17 December 2015



The British Medical Association's GP committee has passed a motion today calling for the resignation of the chief inspector of general practice at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Dr Steve Field.

The motion states that the BMA's GP committee (GPC) “has no confidence in the CQC’s current chief inspector of general practice”, and “demands his resignation forthwith”.

The British Medical Association's GP committee has passed a motion today calling for the resignation of the chief inspector of general practice at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Dr Steve Field.

The motion states that the BMA's GP committee (GPC) “has no confidence in the CQC’s current chief inspector of general practice”, and “demands his resignation forthwith”.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA GPC chair, said: “This motion demonstrates the dismay and anger felt by dedicated hardworking GPs across England” following Field’s “recent unjustified comments”.

Last weekend, Professor Field told the Daily Mail: “I believe that we’ve failed as a profession.

“As a practising GP, I’m quite ashamed that some of my colleagues are providing such poor care… In some practices there is no care; they’re absent. The practices are being run by a series of locums, with no leadership. I was shocked at how uncaring and poor some of the practices have been,” he added.

Nagpaul concluded that: “When the vast majority of practices are managing to maintain high quality care against all odds in the face of falling resources, staff shortages and rising patient demand, the chief inspector should be vocally supporting GP services and not undermining them.”

Similarly, Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs, has today urged Field to apologise for his comments. Baker said they have “shattered the morale of the nation’s GPs, who are already at a low ebb after more than a decade of chronic underfunding”, and he has “lost the confidence of the profession”.

Field – a predecessor of Baker’s as RCGP chair – has undermined the authority of his role, and damaged the concept of regulation among family doctors, Baker said.

The CQC has been contacted for comment.

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