A YORK GP warned today plans to launch a network of private family doctors could be the 'thin end of the wedge'.

Dr Tony Sweeney said the plans by private health insurers PPP could lead to GPs deserting the NHS the way dentists have done - making it more and more difficult for patients to see their family doctor without charge.

PPP plans to pilot the scheme in the south and south-east of England - but if it proves successful there, it could spread to other areas of the country, including Yorkshire.

The company insists GPs joining the scheme would remain committed to their NHS work, and would work for private patients in their spare time only.

But Dr Sweeney, a GP at York's Tang Hall Lane surgery and spokesman in York for the British Medical Association, said GPs were already overworked and would not be able to take on private patients without it affecting their NHS work.

It could mean ultimately it could become as difficult to find an NHS GP as to find an NHS dentist, he warned.

He said: "The majority of GPs I know are so overworked I cannot believe that any of them could find the time.

"This may be the thin end of the wedge. With the pressures of the workloads on doctors, this may start to look more and more attractive, particularly for the younger doctors coming through.

"It has become harder and harder to find NHS dentists, and we should be aware that similar changes could happen with GPs."John DuBois, a spokesman for PPP healthcare, said it was purely a coincidence that proposals to set up a network of the first private family doctors seen in the UK for 50 years were being finalised just as GP fund-holding was about to be phased out.

He insisted GPs joining the scheme would work with private patients only in their spare time, and would not seek to help their patients jump queues for hospital treatment.

He said the benefits to patients would be longer consulting times, more flexible appointment times and a more 'personal relationship' with their doctor.

Dr Robert Markham, chairman of the York and Selby GP Fundholders Group, said he would want to study how the scheme operated 'very very carefully'.

He said: "We don't want any scheme that undermines NHS care."

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