Andrea Leadsom: We must dispense with Labour's proposal to take medicines away from GPs

Andrea Leadsom, parliamentary candidate for South Northamptonshire, says the Government's proposed changes to the dispensing of medicines would create more work for GPs whilst cutting the income of their practices.

What more punishment does Labour have in store for us? I would have thought Gordon Brown would leave the family doctor well alone. The one professional in the UK that people trust is the local GP – those of us with young children have got to know our GP pretty well through many years of blood pressure tests, smears, inoculations, kids with chicken pox and sore throats.

Well, Labour has come up with a new plan that will pull the rug from under your local doctor. Their White Paper deviously entitled Pharmacy in England in fact proposes dramatic and far reaching changes to the way GP services are currently run in England.

The plan, put simply, is to stop GPs dispensing medicines from their surgeries. This will force pharmacies to assume control over dispensing medicines, in return for which the Government wants them to start offering a wider range of services, including diagnosing minor ailments and managing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and asthma.