§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures his Department is taking in response to Commission for Health Improvement concerns on the capacity of primary care trusts to use commissioning as a lever for improvement. [160918]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 16 March 2004]Primary care trusts (PCTs) currently control 75 per cent. of the total National Health Service budget and from April 2004 that will increase to 81 per cent. This places PCTs in the forefront of the modernisation agenda, with the resources at their disposal to deliver improvements for their local populations. Through the Modernisation Agency, PCTs will continue to have access to high quality support programmes (such as the national primary and care trust development programme) that provide opportunities for the sharing of good practice and expert advice.
In addition, work is currently under way to identify opportunities for primary care clinicians to become more actively involved in the commissioning process. This will facilitate further clinician to clinician commissioning using accepted clinical care pathways.