§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether primary care trusts and other National Health Service commissioning bodies are responsible for ensuring that the standards of clinical governance required by the trusts are 72WA adhered to by contractors, including general practitioners, who provide clinical services on behalf of the trust. [HL250]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)All National Health trusts, including primary care trusts and healthcare trusts, have responsibility for ensuring the delivery of safe, high quality care and that clinical governance principles, processes and systems are embedded through the trust board and within the organisation. They should ensure compliance with the statutory duty of quality and principles of clinical governance and patient safety for services commissioned from, hosted by, or jointly provided with other providers.
Primary care trust commissioning decisions should be judged against the twin tests of high clinical standards and good value for money. PCTs will account locally, through the annual patient prospectus, and nationally through the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), for their commissioning decisions. PCTs monitor standards achieved by general practitioners through a variety of methods, including the monitoring of pay, prescribing information, through complaints and discipline mechanisms. GPs also participate in clinical audit, appraisal and CHI inspection and are subject to professional discipline through registration with the General Medical Council.
The role of strategic health authorities includes performances management, building capacity and supporting performance improvement. This involves holding PCTs and NHS trusts to account through their performance agreements, as well as supporting PCTs and NHS trusts to improve the consistency and quality of healthcare through their clinical governance programmes.