ALLOWING patients to find a good and safe consultant with ease – that is the aim of a new group founded by a Brentwood-based clinician.
Gynaecologist Mr Rajiv Varma, 55, has joined forces with 11 other long-serving medics to form Prime Hospital Consultants, an organisation which seeks to improve patient choice in healthcare.
The group is also working to improve the relationship between consultants and GPs, which, according to Mr Varma, has broken down over the past decade or more.
Mr Varma, of Hillwood Grove, Hutton, told the Gazette: "The main aim of Prime Hospital Consultants is for patients to be able to find a good and safe consultant more easily than they can at the moment.
"With this comes the idea of the group having better relationships with local GPs because we have lost that in the NHS in the last 10 or 15 years.
"It used to be that if a patient needed to see a consultant then their GP would say this is a good guy and you should go and see him.
"That was the normal standard for years and years, but that has virtually disappeared."
The group, which was founded in September, comprises experienced clinicians covering several disciplines, namely general surgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, ENT, cardiology, gynaecology, urology, dermatology and gastroenterology.
But not just anyone can join, as Mr Varma explained.
"We picked, firstly, like-minded people and secondly, people who are well respected in their hospitals and who have worked for a significant period of time," said Mr Varma, who has been a consultant since 1992.
"There is also what we call the family test.
"This is a group of doctors who I would be happy to take any member of my family to see.
"You can't have a better test than that."
Mr Varma, who works at the Nuffield Health Hospital in Shenfield Road, Brentwood, and the Spire Hartswood Hospital in Eagle Way, Warley, believes there is a lack of information available to patients at present and says Prime Hospital Consultants will operate with as much transparency as possible.
He said: "We are going make our outcome data available on our website that will allow patients to see the results of all of our operations.
"This is information which, at the moment, you can't get from the NHS. Healthcare needs to be transparent.
"You can't just say good things and if things haven't gone to plan then that has got to be part of it."
At present, the group only does private work, although the aim is to take on NHS work once relationships with GPs are restored.
In a bid to achieve this, the consultants have, among other things, been meeting GPs in Brentwood and organising free teaching sessions for them.
Mr Varma, a father-of-three, concluded: "This whole enterprise is about patient choice and we believe that patients should be involved in decision making about their treatment throughout their entire journey."
For information, call 01277 508 897 or visit www.primehospitalconsultants.com
