As Ministers slam the brakes on controversial plans to transform the NHS, a leading Birmingham GP urges them to rethink the proposals. Jonathan Walker reports.

The Government’s troubled health reforms could force doctors to make decisions which undermine the NHS, a senior GP has warned.

Ministers claim the planned changes will put GPs in charge of commissioning but Fay Wilson, Birmingham representative of the British Medical Association, said doctors were concerned that they would be forced to commission care from the private sector.

She said: “GPs are anxious that they won’t have any real power but they will have to take the blame.”

Dr Wilson, a practising GP in Birmingham, welcomed the Government’s decision to suspend the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill through Parliament so Ministers could listen to objections.

But she said: “What matters of course is that they really do listen.” Ministers have taken the unprecedented step of announcing a two-month “pause” in the Bill’s progress to hold a lengthy listening exercise, following opposition to the proposals.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, are spearheading the consultation, apparently signalling a lack of confidence in Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary.

However, a number of Conservative MPs have expressed support for the proposals, and urged the Government not to back down.

Under the Government’s plans, the health trusts that currently commission and pay for health care from GPs and hospitals are to be scrapped.

Instead, GPs will be asked to form consortia to commission services.

The Department for Health has already approved plans for a series of GP consortia throughout Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Dr Wilson said some GPs were enthusiastic about the planned new system but others had agreed to join consortia because they felt they had to accept the Government’s proposal.