A SPLIT in a York medical practice could prompt major changes in the way GPs conduct themselves in similar disputes across the country.

The controversy which followed the rift at York Medical Group (YMG), in which six GPs took out an injunction against two colleagues who left the practice, could be discussed as part of an overhaul of GPs' contracts.

York MP Hugh Bayley has received an assurance from a government health minister that the issue of a patient's right to choose their GP will be examined in new legislation.

Mr Bayley became involved in the row after patients of doctors Gillian Towler and Martin Ashley told him their right to choose a GP had been compromised, as the two medics were barred from treating their former patients from YMG.

He wrote to health minister John Hutton to express his concern over the conflict, saying the patients had to take priority.

In his reply, Mr Hutton states: "Patient choice needs to be strengthened. I have asked officials to consider further what could be done to maintain patient choice, possibly within the remit of the new GP contract."

Mr Bayley said Mr Hutton's response was encouraging.

"I think the penny has now dropped that this conflict exists," he said.

"I don't believe that patients should get dragged into business disputes between doctors. From what Mr Hutton tells me, I believe the Department of Health will now talk to the British Medical Association, and say it is no longer appropriate to consider patients to be the property of their GP."

Mr Bayley said he was unable to help Drs Towler and Ashley, as a court had upheld the injunction. But he said future change was now down to the BMA. '"The ball is firmly in their court, but they must get used to the fact that patients should be able to see the GP of their choice."

A BMA spokeswoman said the current procedures for funding GP services meant that restrictive covenants might have to remain a fact of life.

She added: "Although patient choice is crucial, you can understand why a practice might not want a doctor to leave and take patients with them.

"It could sometimes be the case, as in this one in York, that a patient may not be able to have the doctor they know and love. It's not an ideal world, unfortunately."

Dr Ashley, who now works at Minster Health Surgery, said: "I am comforted to know that the rights of patients are at last being explored at a national level."

Updated: 11:21 Thursday, April 11, 2002