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Speaking as a retired PCT executive, I can't see any reason for CCGs to be challenged over something that was put in place before their time.

PCTs had their own concerns about the procurement. These varied from the bizarre arrangement that expected a national service to be commissioned through "n" hundred local contracts, to the unproven protocols built into the software, to the delayed reporting of the pilots, to the ignored lessons from the pilots, to the (in my view) unreasonable scoring priorities in the procurement which put quality at less value than money (when will the centre ever learn!).

This leaves aside all the implications of a national roll-out to new providers who did not have a snowball in hell's chance of gearing up in the time available.

Having retired, I now volunteer in my village as a community first responder, and we get anguished emails from the ambulance service to help bail them out, especially over bank holiday weekends... This was all entirely predictable, and actually entirely unnecessary. This could have been used as a way to engage CCGs in the management of the hospital front door (much needed right now) and instead it appears to be a massive shot in the foot.

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