GPs believe that delivering the best possible care for patients in Brighton and Hove should be a priority for the NHS, but new inspection arrangements for GP practices are likely to leave patients confused and GP services tangled in yet more paperwork.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced measuring GPs against 38 chosen targets that will penalise GP practices such as if they don't hold a specific number of healthcare meetings and enter specific data on their computers. This skewed and limited information does not tell us about the quality of care patients receive, and even the CQC itself has said that they are not a “judgment” on the practice.

Neither is there any context about the circumstances it operates in, such as the levels of deprivation in its local community or their level of funding.

All this is bizarrely being put on the web before CQC inspectors have even walked through the practice door.

These simplistic targets take no account of the enormous pressures GP practices are under from falling funding, rising patient demand, a shortage of GPs and GP practice buildings that haven't had any investment in decades.

The CQC would be serving Brighton patients better if it called for a solution to the problem GPs face. This must include more resources to enable the NHS to take on more GPs and nurses, and make sure that any information provided to patients gives them the full picture about their local services.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of the GP committee British Medical Association