第一篇An independent inquiry into out of hours services of family doctors in Scotland has

第一篇

An independent inquiry into out of hours services of family doctors in Scotland has concluded that the introduction of GP cooperatives has been a positive development that is benefiting both patients and doctors.

The working group that drew up the report, however, has expressed some concern about the treatment of children and difficulties faced by some patients in arranging their own transport to travel to emergency centers. Improvements are being sought by the Scottish Office on these issues to improve the quality, fairness, and responsiveness of the system.

The inquiry was prompted by the deaths of two babies in Ayrshire after the local cooperative, Ayrshire Doctors on Call, provided telephone advice but declined requests for home visits. Parents of the dead children criticized the cooperative for failing to send out a doctor.

The parents supported a campaign that called for automatic home visits to be provided for certain groups of patients, such as children and elderly people. That idea has been rejected by the inquiry team, which said that neither patient nor professional groups accepted the value of policies that would provide automatic home visits. Instead, it is recommended that cooperatives carry out more effective monitoring of treatment for children, including reviewing complaints and critical incidents.

The first GP cooperatives were formed three years ago to take over out of hours calls from individual practices, but they were established with different working practices. The report notes that variation exists in transport arrangements, with some cooperatives providing free transport to emergency centers and others requiring people often make their own arrangements. Health board have been ordered to report on the fairness of transport arrangements in their area.

Guidelines are also to be introduced to ensure that cooperatives are working to similar high standards. They will include arrangements that will allow patients to make contact with an out of hours service with a single phone call. Initiatives are also planned to help GPs in rural areas who have been unable to benefit from the development of cooperatives. An extra 540 000 is being provided to pay for these developments.

What does the passage mainly deal with？

A. The introduction of GP cooperatives has been a negative development.

B. GP Cooperatives in Scotland benefit patients and doctors.

C. GP cooperatives have some disadvantages which would do harm to patients.

D. GP cooperatives are well-developed in Scotland.