Mixed picture for IT directors in primary care

The NOP World Health poll conducted for Hudson’s recruitment agency looked broadly at management arrangements in 50 PCTs in England. Only one PCT – a large trust with a £200m plus budget in the South of England – had a full time IT director.

From the respondents with shared responsibilities, 55% took on another role within their PCT and 38% worked as an IT director across more than one PCT.

Out of the 50 PCTs surveyed, 21 had no IT director and only three saw IT support as a key area of concern.

Arrangements for human resources were similarly varied, though two thirds of PCTs had an HR director and a third of those had a full-time, dedicated postholder in place.

Looking more generally at the PCT management teams, the poll asked respondents from all executive disciplines to name their top three desires for developing professional expertise. IT skills (16%) topped their wish lists along with financial expertise, greater capacity to meet change and more experience of the NHS.

Andrew McNeilis, Hudson’s European commercial director, commented: "PCTs are managing budgets of similar sizes to those of Wessex Water, Costa Coffee or Lastminute.com. They are charged with modernising the NHS and, without experienced senior personnel, this is an impossible task.”

A spokesperson for Hudson’s added that two further interesting points emerged from a seminar held last week to discuss the poll. “First, the further north you go the more dedicated management resource you get, which contributors [to the seminar] generally seemed to believe would lead to a north-south divide in performance.  This was clearly costs driven.           

“Second, 72% of the PCTs were saying that private sector experience was not necessary for senior managers and current levels of private sector experience are similarly low.” The spokesperson pointed out that this contrasted strongly with the vision for PCTs put forward by NHS chief executive, Sir Nigel Crisp.