GROUNDBREAKING changes to the way the NHS works are to be pioneered in Bexley.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley came to Northumberland Heath to announce the first 52 groups of pathfinder GPs who will take the lead in commissioning health services for local people.

The Bexley Clinical Cabinet, a consortium of 29 Bexley GP practices will be one of the 52.

Mr Lansley said he had decided to launch the pathfinder programme in Bexley because he had been impressed with the way GPs have been reshaping services across the borough.

He said they had made the best use of resources to create new services for patients which had improved health outcomes.

Mr Lansley told News Shopper: “One of the GPs told me ‘We think we have been designing the services and you wrote your White Paper to fit us’ .

“And having been here today, I think they may be right.”

Among the local schemes which impressed Mr Lansley is the community cardiology scheme, which has just won three Health Service Journal awards and a National Association of Primary Care award.

Bexley Care Trust’s chest pain clinic, held at GP surgeries, enables cardiac patients to get a more accurate disgnosis of their condition, at a fraction of the cost and time of hospital based services, and nearer to patients’ homes.

For diabetics, a community consultant attends GP practices and complex cases are discussed enabling care plans to be adjusted.

More than 140 patients have been removed from hospital care, back to their GP.

Bexley also runs the only graduate GP scheme in the country and has so far had five GPs working in local practices and on commissioning projects.

The borough is also the first in London to introduce a telehealth monitor, enabling patients to carry out appropriate health checks for their conditions, such as blood pressure, oxygen levels, and heart rate, which are sent via the telephone to a “virtual” ward where they are monitored by clinicians.