Hays Health & Social Care, the recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people, have commented on the new Health & Social Care Bill.

Under the Bill published earlier this month two tiers of management will be scrapped and their powers given to commissioning consortia led by General Doctors (GPs). This will leave GPs having to manage million pound budgets.

Paul Marriott, Managing Director of Hays Health & Social Care, said "the concern is whether GPs have the experience, skills and time to handle such huge budgets. One of the questions that is likely to be discussed is what support needs to be in place to ensure GPs are successful in helping reduce the deficit across the NHS."

"The government needs to look at the whole picture and consider the impact that these changes may have on patient care. GPs undertake huge amounts of clinical and healthcare training, they are experts in this field but they are not specialists in dealing with million pound budgets. This requires a different set of skills. Instead of simply servicing patients they will become the commissioner of services, which involves buying in services from healthcare providers, and the infra-structure required to deliver this effectively is considerable."

"It's not just about financial training but GPs will need to understand the procurement process and draw on excellent planning, organisational and negotiation skills. Whilst they clearly have a wealth of knowledge which needs to be tapped into, they should be incorporated into the system rather than given responsibility for it."