GP practices should be responsible for commissioning out-of-hours care, the NHS Alliance has said.

In our area the GP Co-OP were not given the OOH contract after tendering against a Private company....now PCTs who have found it "difficult" to provide any adequate service expect GPs to come to the rescue....??

In our area the local Co Operative run by local professionals and giving a valuable service was not even selected but the OOh service was given to another company who cannot even provide thursday after noon cover Why is the EOE or Government not taking action against such managers --why there is no questions asked Yes we will still bail out provided the managers responsible are sacked

Everything that the DoH touches turns to dust. The PCTs award contracts to Private providers and guess what-- they choose the cheapest option out there \(usually, unless it is a GP Co-op) Funnily enough we have a out-of-county GP run company that is going to tee off from Oct. 08. They had cut down the number of GPs and were hoping to use ENPs until we raised concerns. Now some back-pedalling has followed. We will watch like hawks!!!