Audit Commission tells trusts to improve if they want to survive

Most primary care trusts will have to “raise their game” if they are to survive changes in the system for paying doctors, says the author of a report from the Audit Commission.

The message comes as primary care trusts move towards a “payment by results” system—paying doctors for work done according to a set tariff, taking into account regional variations in cost and complexity of individual cases.

The report attacked primary care trusts over their “inadequate” financial management capabilities, adding that some NHS bodies would “struggle to meet these new challenges.”

Emma Knowles, the author of Achieving First-Class Financial Management in the NHS …