Welfare Reform on the Web (March 2009): National Health Service - primary and community care

40pc of GPs support calls to legalise euthanasia

K. Devlin

Daily Telegraph, Feb. 5th 2009, p. 12

A survey by GP Magazine shows that 40% of family doctors want to see euthanasia legalised and would be prepared to help patients commit suicide. The number in favour of a change in the law on assisted suicide has doubled in five years.

The new GP contract in English primary health care: an ethnographic study

R. McDonald, K. Checkland and S. Harrison

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 22, 2009, p. 21-34

In April 2004 a new contract was introduced for GPs working in the National Health Service which specified in detail the services to be provided and paid practices for hitting targets. The new contract was promoted as allowing GPs to choose which elements of care to provide and how in order to meet targets. This paper presents data from two ethnographic case studies showing that the new contract, far from creating flexible forms of organisation, has resulted in an increase in bureaucratic tendencies.