It's my party and I'll cry if I want to: health minister accuses GPs of cartel activity

On Saturday 5 July, the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday. Meanwhile, health minister Ben Bradshaw has accused some GPs of making "gentlemen's agreements" not to take each other's patients. The implication is that this alleged anti-competitive behaviour reduces patient choice by preventing patients from easily changing their GP.

Antitrust partner Bernardine Adkins says, "GPs may well live to rue their self-employed status, which contrasts with the employed status of NHS hospital consultants. As a matter of competition law, GPs will be deemed to be "economic entities" and subject to the UK competition rules. Any discussion between GPs as to non-poaching of patients will amount to market sharing and constitute a so-called 'hard core' breach of the applicable competition rules."

The minister's comments come as part of a wider raft of controversial government proposals to increase competition among GPs, such as ending the income guarantee for surgeries, ending strict limits on patient numbers and giving cash incentives for taking on new patients.

If found guilty of breaching anti-competition behaviour, GP practices will be subject to fines of up to 10% of annual income under the Competition Act 1998. However, following the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2002, individuals will now also face prison sentences of up to five years; provided it can be proved they were acting dishonestly. The attendant bad publicity and suggestion that GPs are behaving inappropriately will also have ramifications beyond the individuals that are the subject of an investigation.

Bernardine adds, "It will be interesting to observe whether the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will be willing to pick up the baton that the Government appears to be passing. It previously investigated the sector in 2001, following allegations of price-fixing over charges for anaesthetic services provided by the private sector. However, the OFT found that the anaesthetists groups concerned had not infringed the applicable competition rules."

So far, the OFT remains silent over these new accusations. Following the outcome of their previous investigation into anaesthetists, it may well want a second bite at the medical professions… watch this space.