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Press release: NHS Employers announces GMS negotiating team

10 Feb 2005

NHS Employers today announces its negotiating team for the review of the GMS contract.

The 9-strong team will take forward the review of the current GMS contract with the General Practitioners Committee of the BMA.  Any changes to the contract will take effect from April 2006.

The NHS Employers' team will be chaired by Chris Town, Chief Executive of Greater Peterborough PCT and has representatives from PCTs across the country.

Chris Town, Chair of NHS Employers' negotiating team, said today: 'We now have an excellent team on board who will bring a wealth of expertise to our discussions with the BMA.

The current GMS contract is delivering real benefits to GPs, primary health care professionals and most importantly to patients but we have made a commitment to review it for 2006.  The review will focus on two particular areas, the allocation of resources and the quality framework.

We look forward to working closely with the BMA to deliver an improved contract.'

NHS Employers' negotiating team members are:

• Chris Town, Chief Executive, Greater Peterborough PCT
• John Turner, Pay Modernisation Director for General Medical Services, NHS Scotland
• Adrian Jacobs, Director of Primary Care, Torbay PCT
• Peter Dickson, Medical Director, Bradford City PCT
• Philip Grant, Director of Finance, Selby and York PCT
• David King, Associate Director of Strategy, City and Hackney PCT
• Frances Carey, Assistant Director of Finance, North Lincolnshire PCT
• Ian Trimble, PEC Chair, Nottingham City PCT
• Jeannie Ablett, Director of Strategic Development and Commissioning, Milton Keynes PCT

There are two work streams which will report to the main GMS review team, one looking at the funding formula and the other at the quality framework.

The formula review team's representatives from NHS Employers are David King, Frances Carey and Ian Trimble. The group is chaired by Philip Grant.

The quality framework review team's representatives from NHS Employers are Jeannie Ablett, Peter Dickson and Adrian Jacobs. The group is jointly chaired by Adrian Jacobs for NHS Employers and a representative from the BMA's GPC.

Notes for editors

1. NHS Employers has been given a mandate by the Department of Health to review the General Medical Services Contract in conjunction with the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association. 
2. NHS Employers has a mandate to negotiate a contract for England.  It will ensure that all four countries work very closely together on negotiations and improvement in employment practices and where possible will aim to develop UK-wide agreements. 
3. The majority of the negotiators are new to the team except for Chris Town who chaired the last review of the GMS contract on behalf of the NHS Confederation and John Turner who was on the core team.  
4. The negotiating team members responded to a call for expressions of interest in being part of the negotiating team. They then went through an interview process to select the final team.

Contact details

The press office provides a comprehensive service to keep journalists informed about the work of NHS Employers.

If you have a media enquiry, please contact the press office team:

• Gemma Jeffcoate
  0207 074 3308 or gemma.jeffcoate@nhsemployers.org
• Emma Stafford
  0207 074 3307 or emma.stafford@nhsemployers.org

For out of hours media enquiries, please contact the duty press officer on 07880 500726.

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