PM announces web feedback plans

People will soon be able to post feedback about GPs, police and councils in the same way they do on websites such as Ebay and Amazon, Gordon Brown has said.

Announcing the Working Together report, the Prime Minister said it was wrong that consumer websites had "higher standards of transparency" than those for public services.

He said: "We will put people first by placing power in the hands of those who use our public services.

"This will be an information revolution to enable parents, patients and citizens to share information and experience in the performance of schools, hospitals and police forces."

Mr Brown compared the new approach to the Tripadvisor site, where travellers can share their thoughts on hotels, and said it would help the Government improve services as well as help people pick the best nurseries and schools.

He said as part of the plans the NHS Choices website would allow people to give online comment about their health services and give direct feedback on GP services by the summer.

However, the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Conservatives have criticised the plans.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of council at the BMA, said: "Doctors already seek the views of their patients to improve the care they provide.

"The consumerist approach being advocated by the Government is not well suited to the NHS. Patients are not supermarket customers, and doctors are doing more than providing an easily rated commodity.

"The suggestion that your treatment in the NHS can be as easily rated as a stay in a hotel is simplistic. There is a risk that this exercise could reduce NHS care to a meaningless popularity contest, encouraging perverse behaviours and an emphasis on the superficial."

Andrew Lansley, a representative for the Conservatives, said: "The NHS does not need reheated or interfering initiatives that usurp what should be a matter for professional decision-making."

The report also highlighted plans to allow people to make comments on council websites by May this year. The scheme will then be extended to schools and police forces although this will not be until the end of 2009.