Not a GP’s role

Published: 9 September, 2010

• I ENTIRELY agree with the commentary in the New Journal about both Camidoc and the Camden Bereavement Service (September 2).

GPs are in no position to take on the role of commissioning services and managing huge budgets on top of caring for patients.

They will have to take on help from private companies who will have on their books those people with knowledge and experience, that is, managers and commissioners made redundant from the NHS because of the so-called economies.

These people will have been in receipt of large redundancy payments, the cost of which is being swept under the carpet. How does that make economic sense?

Threatening Camden Bereavement Service with a reduction in its grant, creating the possibility of closure, also makes no economic sense.

The service must represent value for money if its 90 qualified counsellors are giving their time voluntarily.

Whether people are seen for a short time or a long time (since you can’t put a time limit on grief) is simply not relevant in this context.

Surely this service epitomises David Cameron’s desire for a “Big Society” (he seems unaware that there already is one).

Yet the application of so-called efficiencies is jeopardising a service that embodies the principles that are supposed to be a cornerstone of his government’s policies.

I should add that after my stepson died I was helped enormously by Camden Bereavement Service and would hate to see others in distress being denied that help.

LINDA MASSIE
Address supplied