The health secretary has hit back at critics of his plans to hand Whitehall cash to GPs.

Andrew Lansley said the 52 new Pathfinder Consortia would help shape how the reforms would work in practice. He also admitted Treasury officials and the Cabinet's policy guru Oliver Letwin had questioned whether the financial controls were in place to cope with moving £80bn from the NHS budget to GP consortia. Mr Lansley rejected opposition from the British Medical Association and Royal College of GPs using the pathfinders as a sign of success. He said: ‘This is the first real indication that there is an appetite in the GP community to create a primary care-led health service.'