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Health economists have called into doubt the government s presumption that its planned transfer of 5% of current hospital activity - £2.4bn in budget terms - to primary and social care will be cost-neutral.
The white paper Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services, published on January 30, outlines the government's aspirations to introduce more patient choice into primary care and to move services currently provided in hospitals into GP surgeries, walk-in centres, community hospitals and new privately run clinics.
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt described it as marking a 'major strategic shift in the way our care services work'.
But...