04 November 2005
Primary care trusts will continue to play a 'central role' in local health economies, the minister for NHS delivery Lord Warner insisted this week.
He said their roles would consist of supervising practice-based commissioning, supporting new independent providers and managing patient demand.
Warner was speaking at an NHS Confederation conference as speculation continued over the future of PCTs once GP commissioning begins next year, and the trusts' provider functions are outsourced.
'It is [the PCT's] job to ensure that the range and scale of primary care itself is adequate, and if it's insufficient, to increase primary care capacity, bringing in new providers as necessary,' said Warner.
He added that PCTs should be 'bold about using social entrepreneurs, from the public, voluntary and private sector, if those people offer patients more appropriate services and better outcomes for their needs'.
The Department of Health said it was unable to clarify if that stretched to PCTs seed-funding new private sector providers, because legal action by the Royal College of Nursing prevented it discussing the reform in detail.
The RCN is seeking a judicial review of the NHS reform plans because of what it says is the government's failure to carry out public consultation on its demand that PCTs divest themselves of their provider functions.
More doubt was cast on the pace of the government's reforms when NHS chief executive Sir Nigel Crisp admitted that the computer system to provide GPs and patients with the facility for electronic bookings of hospital appointments – dubbed 'choose and book' – was a year behind schedule.
Only 20,000 appointments had so far been booked electronically, due to problems linking hospitals' and GPs' different computer systems.
Nearly 10 million initial hospital appointments are made annually.
But the target of offering patients a choice of four hospitals by January 2006 would still be met.
A DoH spokesman said: 'Manual procedures have been developed to ensure that at the turn of the year all patients can exercise their choice of hospital.'
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