PCT chiefs warn on reconfiguration plans

41% of primary care trust chief executives think that the planned reconfiguration of their organisations will have a negative effect on implementing the National Programme for IT, according to a survey this week.

Only 12% thought there would be a positive effect and 47% thought there would be no effect.

‘Rushed’, ‘incoherent’, ‘political’ and ‘vague’ were some of the general comments gathered by the Health Service Journal survey which sought PCT chiefs’ views on all aspects of the government’s plan for primary care issued in July.

The Department of Health outlined its proposals in the document Commissioning a Patient-led NHS. The plan is to virtually halve the number of PCTs by October 2006, and to change their function to focus on the commissioning role, transferring service provision to other providers where this is feasible. In many cases, the merged PCTs will cover the same boundaries as local authorities.

A common view among those surveyed was that the reconfiguration was the right move done in the wrong way. 47% said that they agreed with the principles behind the plans but not with the timetable.

Enquiries by EHI Primary Care in August suggested that the plans were leading to queries over future funding for PCT IT plans and were distracting managers. However, in other areas where ICT investment is already organised across wider local boundaries, the changes were seen as a logical move towards more strategic PCTs.

Just under 80% of the PCT chief thought recruitment and retention would be adversely affected by the reconfiguration and 98% thought morale would suffer. None of the respondents thought the plans could be described as ‘patient-led’.

Link

Health Service Journal

Health Service Journal