Editor's blog Tuesday 5 July 2011: Will changing SOS's "duty to provide" permit sale of goodwill?

I forget about things, which is one way of making life more exciting.

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I had pretty much forgotten a piece I wrote a year ago on the possible sale of goodwill in GP practices.

Among the many and varied kinds of political chaos over the past year, I forgot about that issue. What Andrew Lansley (Saviour, Liberator) would no doubt whip out his Latin to describe as the status quo ante was that the goodwill in GP practices - the registered list - was effectively owned by the Secretary Of State For Health. It was not a saleable asset for those with GMS and PMS contracts.

I even asked Mr Lansley (Saviour, Liberator) about it at the launch of his White Paper: "who will own the goodwill and intellectual property in GP commissioning consortia, and will there be an asset lock on these?
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Mr Lansley (Saviour, Liberator) replied, "I see no basis on which consortia could realise and distribute goodwill".

That was, of course, prior to the Bill being published, which proposes to change the "duty to provide" wording over the Secretary Of State For Health's responsibility.

An interesting question is whether the change of wording, and thus of legal responsibility, would now create a basis on which consortia can realise and distribute goodwill.

Goodwill being as it is, money, this is an intriguing concept.

GMS partner GPs have slowly been abolishing themselves by not creating the next generation of partners. If goodwill becomes sellable and is sold, it potentially marks the end of list-based general practice as we know it. And the creation of clinical commissioning groups as capitated budget-holding entities.

Let me know what you think. editorial AT heathpolicyinsight.com