A LEADING York GP has welcomed Conservative plans to massively increase practitioners’ powers to decide where the region’s annual £1billion NHS cash is spent.

Dr Brian McGregor, who represents GPs throughout York and North Yorkshire as chairman of the Local Medical Committee, said he and fellow doctors welcomed the opportunity to have a bigger input.

“We will be looking for a bigger clinical voice and we want the best use of the money which is available,” he said.

“But we need to make efficiencies in the system, though we don’t want wide ranging cuts.”

He admitted that some GPs were daunted by the extra responsibility and acknowledged that this was public money but said they were “ready to run with it.” Currently, all medical staff are contracted to carry out work by NHS North Yorkshire and York, but under plans by the new Secretary for health, Andrew Lansley, many spending decisions would be handed to local doctors.

For the past six months, back pain sufferers in York have been fighting for the return of routine pain relief injections, which were scrapped by NHS North Yorkshire and York late last year.

The group said it had the support of many GPs in its battle; however Dr McGregor said he could not imagine the service being returned.

“The evidence doesn’t support it as a long term solution,” he said. “Everything we do will have to have a base in evidence – that’s where the injections fall down.”

He did however promise that routine injections would be considered in specific cases.

Jill Clark, of the York Pain Management Support Group, which is fighting the case for the hundreds of back pain sufferers in York, welcomed Dr McGregor’s promise to assess individuals. She said that the injections were never routine, but were given in cases where there had been a flare-up of a recurring problem.