Primary Care Trusts

I would suggest that the future will tell us exactly about the rights and the wrongs of that. We have had some movement in that area since the Government’s response. Presumably, Committee members will have been involved in some of the consultation that has been taking place on PCT reconfigurations. In May of this year, the Government published the fitness to purpose tools for new PCTs. A document of more than 500 pages was sent out to them; I am sure that they will greatly appreciate that. On 16 May, the Government issued the final plans for PCT reconfiguration. PCTs will be reduced from 303 to 152 from October of this year, and we now have the renewed boundaries. May I take up three or four outstanding matters? One matter is the approach to change. In response to our concerns, the Government have clearly modified the approach that it had in the 28 July letter. For example, their stance on divestment of services has softened considerably. The Government have explicitly stated that PCTs will not be instructed to stop directly providing services. Equally, some explicit decisions regarding local PCT boundaries have been adjusted in response to local pressure. The Government have acknowledged that the top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to change is not the one that is required. That is shown by both the current significant variations and those that will be coming into being in October of this year. The new Hartlepool PCT covers a population of just 90,000, but Hampshire PCT covers a population of more than 1.25 million.