25 April 2003
Primary care t rusts must prepare for an exodus of clinical managers over the next two years, according to a survey by the NHS Alliance.
The body, which represents PCTs, said that half the doctors, nurses and other clinical professionals who help run the trusts were planning to leave by 2005. One in five said they would leave within a year.
One of the main reasons was a rising clinical workload – 90% of the 402 respondents said this made it increasingly difficult to find time for their management responsibilities.
Two-thirds said there was too much bureaucracy in PCTs and too many meetings, while more than half of the respondents were frustrated that new NHS funding was not getting though to frontline services.
It will not be easy to find replacements for those who plan to leave. Most clinicians said they were less likely to get involved with running PCTs than they were a year ago. Two-thirds of doctors said they were less likely and only 17% more likely.
The news will worry ministers. PCTs – and the strong input from clinicians – are crucial to moving decisions closer to the frontline.
'The NHS cannot afford a haemorrhage of clinician involvement like this,' said NHS Alliance chief executive Michael Sobanja.
He added: 'They are the people who know better than anyone else what their patients and local populations need. We need immediate action to address the problems experienced on the ground if we are to make sure the health service is driven by clinicians as the government has promised it will be.'
PFapr2003
