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LibDems have failed to notice their cookie jar is empty

Tags: cookie jar, deficit reduction, health, PCTs, Shibley Rahman, Shibley Rahman blog, White Paper

By shibleyrahman in Dr Shibley Rahman viewpoint on April 9, 2011.

Somebody’s been at the Coalition Cookie-Jar again, and the LibDems have failed to notice – yet again.

The Tory-led government was proposing to scrap primary care trusts and give councils responsibility for public health and joint working between NHS and other services.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s white paper also set out plans for local GP consortiums to take on the PCT role of commissioning hospital treatments. As expected, strategic health authorities will also be abolished.

Lansley reiterated the Department of Health’s target of £20bn savings by 2013/14. According to this article, he said abolishing PCTs would save £1bn, helping to slash NHS management costs by 45%. All the measures in the white paper, Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS, will affect health services in England only.

Why do the Liberal Democrats seem impotent in pointing out obvious discrepancies? This is what the Coalition Agreement said:

We will ensure that there is a stronger voice for patients locally through directly elected individuals on the boards of their local primary care trust (PCT). The remainder of the PCT’s board will be appointed by the relevant local authority or authorities, and the Chief Executive and principal officers will be appointed by the Secretary of State on the advice of the new independent NHS board. This will ensure the right balance between locally accountable individuals and technical expertise.
The local PCT will act as a champion for patients and commission those residual services that are best undertaken at a wider level, rather than directly by GPs. It will also take responsibility for improving public health for people in their area, working closely with the local authority and other local organisations.

It’s therefore an odd situation where the Coalition had been wishing to extend the powers of the PCT. Now, it seems that they do not wish to preserve this for the sake of deficit reduction. Anecdotal reports suggest that Croydon is phasing out its PCT. What is really happening? Speaks for itself really.

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