The private sector has established a small but significant bridgehead in general practice in England, but any “corporate takeover” of family doctor surgeries remains a long way off.Primary care trusts have been commissioning some 260 “GP-led health centres”, or “polyclinics”, open 8am to 8pm, seven days a week - one in each primary care trust and a further 110 or so in areas short of doctors.
Margaret McCartney is a Glasgow-based GP and FT Weekend columnist. She started writing for the Life and Arts section in 2005 and moved to the magazine in
2008. She also has her own blog: www.margaretmccartney.com/blog
Andrew Jack is pharmaceuticals correspondent, covering the industry and public health issues. He has been a journalist with the FT for 19 years, based in London, Paris and Moscow
Clive Cookson has been a science journalist for the whole of his working life. He joined the FT in 1987.
Nicholas Timmins is public policy editor
Selected FT blog posts
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Clive Cookson, the FT's science editor, picks out the research that everyone should know about, in fields from astronomy to zoology