Charles Walker calls on the Secretary of State for Health to reassure his constituents that if GP practices are replaced with larger health clinics residents will continue to have access to a family doctor.

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): As the Secretary of State knows, I campaigned in my constituency for an urgent care centre as part of the effort to ensure that hospital reconfiguration in the area did not leave my constituents short of services. My constituents want the reassurance of an urgent care centre, but they also want GP practices where there is a familiar, friendly face. Can the Secretary of State give an assurance that people will have a family doctor, who comes out on visits and be there for them?

Alan Johnson: Of course I can. Two central fallacies underpin the Tory party position. The first is that we are imposing a system of polyclinics throughout the country. We are not. The second is that, if an area has a group practice or a health centre, or if GPs decide to move into much better facilities where several practices operate together, people can no longer see their own GP. That is nonsense. It is wrong to suggest that the proposals signal the death of the important patient-GP relationship; they do not.

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