Darzi – Will it Change Anything?

On the face of it, the Darzi Primary Care Strategy entitled “Our Vision for Primary and Community Care” is a charter for reinvigorating primary care commissioning and provision. Many feared that it would attempt to deconstruct primary care and general practice but, in its eventual form, it is a vote of confidence in both and many of the traditional values of primary care such as personal care and continuity. It supports many of the ideas in NHS Alliance’s March 2008 document “In Sickness and in Health”, which advocated greater support for Practice Based Commissioning, innovation funds, enhancing clinical leadership and public involvement and piloting integrated care organisations. Its aspirations are laudable.