DOCTORS in Buckinghamshire are set to deliver a stinging attack on the health secretary Andrew Lansley – saying he has reneged on a pre-election promise and is 'unfit' to run the NHS.

The Bucks division of the British Medical Association, the doctors' trade union, is expected to join other regions in calling for Lansley to resign at a meeting today.

A motion from Bucks doctors set to be debated says Lansley has “reneged on his pre-election promise not to reorganise the NHS management structures”, while “demonstrating his desire to destroy the public's trust in their GPs”.

The Government's controversial plans to reform the health service involve axing NHS Buckinghamshire and other primary care trusts, and handing funds to GPs to decide how health funding is spent.

The motion from the Bucks division also says Lansley has failed to assess whether GPs have the “willingness, capacity or competence to manage £80 billion of the NHS budget”.

It adds there is no evidence the reforms will achieve any benefits to the public purse or patient care.

Other regions, including London and Birmingham are also critical of the changes and medics at the special representatives meeting tomorrow will urge the BMA to reject the health and social care bill in its entirety.

Up until now the BMA has adopted a policy of 'critical engagement' with Lansley.

The stance from the Bucks division is perhaps surprising, given that the county's GP 'consortia' were chosen to be forerunners of the reforms (see link below).

But the chairman of a group of 34 GP practices in the south of the county said she is not calling for Lansley's resignation.

Dr Annet Gamell, chair of Bucks Primary Care Collaborative and also a BMA member, added: “The GPs in our consortium are very much in favour of clinically-led commissioning, working very much with managers - but not GPs turning into managers.

"The pace of change is the main concern."