As David Jewell says, the White Paper assures us that tendering processes for provision of primary care in underdoctored and oversick areas will be fair.1 What evidence is there to support this assurance?
The first serious contest for such contracts took place in December 2005 at Langwith and Creswell in North East Derbyshire, communities socially devastated by the destruction of the British coal industry since 1985. Dr Bess Barrett, with 20 years' experience of providing care in the area, a good clinical team with university connections, unanimous support from local councillors and development land offered free for a new building, submitted her imaginative plans for provision of care after wide consultation with local people and …