Shropshire GP reacts to NHS boss 'weight loss rewards' idea

Large GP surgeries could also provide hospital services as part of the five-year blueprint outlined by NHS England to relieve pressure on staff and save cash.

But its chief executive Simon Stevens said even with those cuts, there would still be an £8 billion a year shortfall nationally.

He said he thought it should be "perfectly feasible" for politicians to plug that black hole. Mr Stevens insisted the reforms were not a move towards privatisation, insisting the "vast majority" of care would continue to be state-provided.

But he said the NHS had to "think like a patient and act like taxpayers".

"We have got to get more serious about prevention, we have got to get serious about changing the way care is provided," he said.

Evidence

Dr Nick Tindall, a GP at The Surgery in Wellington Road, Newport, said he was "a little bit fed up" with all the constant reorganisation in the NHS. He said: "I think there has to be good evidence that something is going to make a difference before we make wholesale changes."

Paul Goulbourne, chair of the Ellesmere Medical Practise Patient Group said: "If the government can fund wars they should be able to fund the NHS.

"I think it's about educating people about their own health from an early age – it starts at the cradle. It's now the next generation's job to make sure we take responsibility for our own health."

Dr Charles West, a retired GP who worked in both Church Stretton and Shrewsbury, said: "

I think the idea for cash or spending vouchers is a bit gimmicky, but it is no different to any other employer – we should be making health facilities more accessible.

"But I think the reorganisation that would see privatisation of parts of the NHS would be fundamentally wrong.

"The more resources and patients that privatised units get, the more pressure it puts on the NHS because they are taking the resources from them."