Primary Care – Page 241
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News
GPs fail to help with appointments audit
Primary care trusts have been unable to complete an audit of the number of GP appointments provided by practices because GPs have refused to hand over the information, following British Medical Association advice.
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News
Britnell moots PCT rebrand
Primary care trusts could change their names over the next year to boost the public’s understanding of their role.
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News
PCTs may be subject to people power
Primary care trusts and other healthcare providers could face increased pressure to respond to local people's concerns under a new 'community empowerment' white paper.
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News
Patients demand 'creativity' in dental commissioning
Primary care trusts successful at commissioning dental services should be able to take over from those that are failing, says the Patients Association.
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News
Lib Dems plan PCT tax-raising power
The Liberal Democrats would turn primary care trusts into elected bodies that would eventually enjoy tax-raising powers, the party decided at its spring conference in Liverpool.
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News
FESC is thrown open without Treasury probe
The Department of Health has extended its commissioning support programme without carrying out an expected value-for-money assessment of the scheme, HSJ has learned.Health secretary Alan Johnson announced last week that the framework for procuring external support for commissioners, FESC, is now open to all primary care trusts to buy in ...
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Comment
PCT rebrand will help end identity crisis
Public sector rebranding exercises are often seen as a costly and pointless distraction. But the proposal to rebrand primary care trusts - so Oldham PCT would become NHS Oldham, for example - makes a great deal of sense and does not need to cost money.
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News
PCTs pressured to lose provider arm
Strategic health authorities are forcing primary care trusts to divest themselves of their provider functions, PCT chiefs have claimed.
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Comment
AIDS: getting the word out to diverse communities
Educating immigrant groups about the AIDS epidemic in the UK must be treated as a key public health priority, as Hazel Barrett explains
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Comment
Andrew Jones on extending primary care
As I opened the envelope from the British Medical Association, I found myself reflecting on a tumultuous few months. The envelope in question contained a justification of the GPs' committee's negotiating stance on extended hours and a form for voting on enhanced payments options.
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HSJ Knowledge
How to pick a prescription
Prescribing advisers help curb the national drugs spend and GPs value them too. Daloni Carlisle looks at their developing role
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HSJ Knowledge
Change of view: improving primary care
GPs in Essex were stimulated by the arrival of an alternative provider contract in their patch, say Hilary Ayerst and Paul Corrigan
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News
PCTs cut continuing care packages
More than a quarter of primary care trusts have cut the number of adults they give NHS 'continuing care', despite guidance intended to boost provision.Figures published by the Department of Health show 44 PCTs reduced the number of people to whom they give the care package between April and December ...
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Comment
Sizing up the national child measurement programme
Forcing primary care trusts to measure all four and 11 year olds in their schools will not help tackle childhood obesity, argues Catherine Gleeson
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Comment
David Peat on community spirit
It occurred to me the other day that just as TV soap devotees have Coronation Street, in East Lancashire we have Howard Street. But instead of the Rovers Return being the centre of everything that moves, we have Howard Street's community health centre.
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HSJ Knowledge
Richard Gleave on healthcare wholesalers
Mastering the latest management jargon is as much of a skill in the US as it is in the NHS. Even after several months, I am still a novice and get especially confused by the sporting analogies: it is easy to guess what is meant by a 'play book', but ...
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HSJ Knowledge
'Twas ever thus: why Darzi is 90 years too late
In 1920 Lord Dawson, physician-in-ordinary to George V, called for the creation of what we now call polyclinics in a report that was well received even by the BMA. So why did his idea never take off, ask Ian Kendall and John Carrier
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News
GP payment scheme must be 'scaled back'
Offering financial incentives to GPs and other healthcare providers is unlikely to have a dramatic impact on the quality of patient care, new research concludes.
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News
Eleventh-hour changes to GP contract left PCTs with bill
The introduction of the new GP contract led to a 57 per cent increase in payments to practices in just three years, the National Audit Office has found. The huge increase was fuelled by a last-minute concession to the British Medical Association that sidelined the government's own priority to tackle ...
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News
Tee calls for cash incentives
NHS Direct could be paid extra to focus on taking calls from patients living in deprived areas or with specific health needs, its chief executive Matt Tee has revealed.