PCT disengagement from GP practices:
has anybody
noticed yet?

Dr Michael Taylor, National Chairman, shares his worries about PCTs.
 

 As there was more fun in a mild case of coryza than ticking health and safety boxes I resigned. I handed my P.E.C. rubber stamp and my Board rubber stamp onto the next poor sap.



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 "GPs are not engaging with the PCT", so runs the mantra of the PCT Worrits as they fret about World Class Commissioning. The Darzi Review discusses WCC in paragraph 7.17-7.22: they are well worth a read. But are GPs disengaged? Or have the PCTs become remote from General Practice teams?

When Clinical Governance became concerned with the fag-end of quality, and box tickingly boring while the progressive innovatory stuff withered on the vine, I decided enough was enough. As there was more fun in a mild case of coryza than ticking health and safety boxes I resigned. I handed my P.E.C. rubber stamp and my Board rubber stamp onto the next poor sap.

My frustration was then compounded by an epidemic of community specialist nurses by community nurse managers declaring unilateral independence and a rotation of district midwifes so rapid it would not have disgraced the whirling dervishes. Now, Community Services employ 800 staff (more than local general practice) none of whom directly input into the patients medical record! There are 56 departments and I can think of but a dozen.

The largest most imposing building in my small post industrial town is the central Victorian church. It will soon be dwarfed by a £7.8 million 4-storey L.I.F.T. building of dubious architectural merit. A recent edition of our local rag carries a photo of the first sod cutting ceremony. Were any GPs invited? Were any aware? To my mind this is a symptom of the malaise of PCTs being disengaged with GPs.

There we have, the twin perceptions, the twin realities of PCT/GP and GP/PCT disengagement. We are now trawling around for possible solutions. Any suggestions out there?