Consultant airs views on YouTube

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The British Medical Association in Wales says hospital consultants and GPs need to be working closer together.

A senior Welsh consultant says the way patients are referred for expert help is being "hijacked" by managers.

Jonathan Osborne, a specialist at Denbighshire's Glan Clwyd hospital warned that some GPs do not know who their local consultants are any more.

The Welsh Assembly Government said it was not aware of any problems with the current referral system.

But Mr Osborne, an ear, nose and throat consultant and vice-chairman of the BMA's Welsh council, argued that building bridges between family doctors and specialists would benefit the NHS in Wales as a whole. We need to redesign the process of GP referrals, with some patients being managed in a community setting Consultant, Jonathan Osborne

"The system of patient referrals by GPs has been hijacked by management, to the extent that some practitioners don't even know who their local hospital consultants are any more," said Mr Osborne.

"It's a situation that's been allowed to develop because of a conflict between managerialism and professionals, which is serving only to benefit health service statistics at the moment."

The consultant's views have been aired in an interview broadcast by the BMA on the internet through YouTube.

He added: "We need to redesign the process of GP referrals, with some patients being managed in a community setting, where possible."

'Restore links'

BMA Cymru said that GPs, consultants and representatives from the medical royal colleges in Wales had developed a series of proposals that they now want the assembly government to consider.

Measures include using secure, electronic referrals to consultants, re-introducing consultants' secretaries, new agreed referral protocols, and restoring the links between family doctors and on-call senior hospital doctors.

Responding to the comments, an assembly government spokesperson said: "We are not aware of any problems with referral managements systems in Wales.

"However, if the BMA has specific examples, we would be happy to look into them.

"We have not received any proposals from the royal colleges, but when we do receive them, we will be happy to consider them."