Cllr Jillian Creasy, the Green Party candidate for Sheffield Central Constituency, has added her voice to the campaign to protect a vital source of government funding to general practices which is currently planned to be removed. Jillian has tabled a motion to Sheffield Council for Wednesday 4th February, calling for the Council to support the campaign against the funding withdrawal.
The ‘Minimum Practice Income Guarantee’ (MPIG) which was brought in to address imbalances in funding of general practices in 2004, is being threatened with withdrawal by the current government.
Without this vital source of funding, many practices face closure. One such practice is Devonshire Green, where the local campaign to save MPIG was launched last week.
Jillian stated “The motion I have proposed to council calls for a united response to back the campaign against the withdrawal of MPIG. Devonshire Green serves a very diverse community, a very mixed population with a high proportion of patients suffering from poverty, homelessness, mental health problems, drug and alcohol addiction. This is why it will be hit so hard by a withdrawal of MPIG.
“In a time of crisis for the NHS, we cannot allow more sources of primary care to be cut and for more people to be pushed into going to hospital for their treatment. It is of vital importance that we unite as a council to pressure the government into keeping MPIG in place.”
However Jillian, who is the national Green Party Health Spokesperson, also criticised previous governments for creating the need for MPIG, “We must also look toward removing the current culture in the NHS, where doctors and nurses are rewarded for hitting targets and worrying about prices, instead of being free to focus on delivering the best and most extensive quality care possible in each individual situation.
“The fact that we need to support and maintain funding top ups like MPIG is a symptom of this targets and pricing culture, which disproportionally affects practices like Devonshire Green, which has been slowly eating into our NHS for over 25 years.”
Notes:
BMA Article on MPIG: http://bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/2014/september/four-hundred-plus-deprived-area-gp-practices-face-mpig-withdrawal
Council Agenda 4/2/2015:http://sheffielddemocracy.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=5632&x=1
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