Review

GP rules on CD, OK?

The Electronic Red Book
Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000, £99.00

Now that Alan Milburn has announced that he wants to tear up the GPs’ contract, doctors will be keen to see exactly what it says. This CD contains the entire text of:

• the Red Book, which is the colloquial name for the Statement of Fees and Allowances;
• the Red Book Expert, which is an electronic calculator to work out deprivation payments, vaccination targets and so on;
• Making Sense of the Red Book, which is an explanation of the rules with examples, written by John Chisholm and Norman Ellis;
• the health service circulars about primary care groups, premises and computer costs;
• the General Medical Services Regulations;
• the Pharmaceutical Regulations;
• the PCT regulations, and
• the New NHS 1997 white paper.

To run this disk you must have Windows 95 or later (no messing about with Linux or Macs) and have 15MB of disk space. There is no option to run the programme from the CD. The text of the PCT regulations is now available on the internet, but this CD collects all the rules in one place.

It is much easier to see how much rural GPs can claim if their patients live a long way from them or are liable to be cut off by floodwater, or ponder why removal expenses can be paid for tuning an ordinary piano but not a concert piano. And what the effect is of missing the cervical smear target.

It’s not very entertaining stuff but it is important in its effects.