11 November 2005
Plans to reconfigure primary care trusts are focusing on saving money rather than improving patient care, the NHS Alliance said this week.
Michael Dixon, chair of the Alliance, which represents PCTs, told its annual conference in Harrogate on November 10 that the reorganisation must meet the needs of people and frontline professionals. It must also improve commissioning, at both GP practice and PCT level, but current plans would achieve none of these goals.
'If we concentrate simply on saving 15% management costs or neat lines on maps then that is short-termism gone mad. There are far greater long-term savings from getting commissioning right,' he said.
Following the reorganisation, PCTs may lose some or all of the services they provide now. But Dixon insisted these services should not be handed over to foundation trusts, as they knew nothing of primary care.
However, there was a limited role for the private sector. He said: 'We need the private sector to help us as partners… but ultimately to support the front line, not to swallow it.
'Services should be run by the people who are already working there, whose heart and soul is in their local communities. We must not allow them to become serfs in a system run by bigger boys such as foundation trusts and private sector corporates.'
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