Primary care trusts to continue direct provision of services

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7542.627

BMJ 2006;332:627 (18 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7542.627

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Primary care trusts to continue direct provision of services

London Andrew Cole

The UK government has insisted that reconfigured primary care trusts (PCTs) will be free to continue to provide as well as to commission a range of services under its latest reforms. The announcement is part of its response, published last week, to a scathing health select committee report that attacked the reforms as “ill judged” and the policy of contracting out provider services as “incoherent” (BMJ 2006;332:72, 14 Jan).

Ministers originally said that the PCTs would have to shed all provided services, such as district nursing and family planning, and concentrate solely on commissioning. They later softened this line, saying trusts could continue to run services in certain circumstances. But it was widely believed that trusts would have to disengage sooner or later.

The government has now said, however, that it will support PCTs “whether or not they chose to divest, provided that the approach they . . . [Full text of this article]

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