14 September 2007
Primary care trusts need to make more serious efforts to improve the quality and safety of patient treatment, according to a report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
Trusts have a statutory duty to safeguard care standards and continuously improve service quality but the September 13 report found clinical governance was less developed in primary care than secondary care.
This was partially due to the freelance status of many GPs and other providers, which caused confusion over who was accountable. As a result, the responsibilities were often overlooked or sidelined.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said: 'Too many primary care organisations are paying lip service to the principles of the clinical governance agenda… that's a poor state of affairs.'
But David Stout, director of the NHS Confederation's PCT Network, insisted the trusts took clinical governance 'extremely seriously' and 'now have much stronger mechanisms, including the GP contract, to address any shortcomings'.
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