Privatising primary care

I couldn't agree more with the excellent editorial by Allyson Pollock and David Price (‘Privatising Primary Care’) in August's British Journal of General Practice. The representatives at the BMA's Annual Representative Meeting this summer voted to oppose the privatisation of the NHS. It's unfortunate, in my opinion, that my college, the RCGP, has not taken this line, but perhaps the BJGP could consider publishing papers regarding evidence as to the effectiveness or otherwise of privatised primary care, for example in the US. I have been going to the US fairly often over the last 30 years and it is my experience, both personally and from talking to medical friends, that only a small proportion of the population there receive what we would consider an adequate primary care service. American publications by Barbara Stansfield and the Commonwealth Fund of New York support this point of view.

• © British Journal of General Practice, 2006.