Bosses of a new doctors’ consortium have been called to the town hall to make sure they aren’t scratching each others backs.

Under new government legislation, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) will be responsible for how the NHS spends some of its money – buying treatments and services for patients from a variety of sources.

But many members of Islington’s newly-appointed CCG also run their own GP surgery – exactly the sort of places that might sell services to the NHS – so Islington Councils’ health scrutiny committee has asked them to attend to ensure everything is above board.

Cllr Martin Klute, chairman of the committee, said: “A conflict of interests is a possibility and it’s very important we avoid that.”

“It will be nice to get a handle on how likely this is and what they intend to do if it arises.

“It’s not at all clear the extent to which this might be an issue.

“Are they going to be implicated all over the place, or will it be a case of just declaring an interest and leaving the meeting.

“This is exactly the sort of thing the scrutiny committee is here to make sure about.”