HC Deb 21 December 1999 vol 341 c508W
23. Mrs. Fyfe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about raising standards of primary health care in the NHS. [102284]

Mr. Denham

Improving quality across the National Health Service, including in primary care, is at the heart of this Government's modernisation programme, as set out in "A First Class Service: Quality in the new NHS".

Locally, all NHS bodies have a duty to put arrangements in place to assure and improve the quality of care they provide by establishing arrangements for clinical governance.

Centrally, we have established the National Institute for Clinical Excellence; a programme of National Service Frameworks; and the Commission for Health Improvement.