Healthcare Commission < Influencers contents | Print this page Reviews of PCTs The first pilot clinical governance reviews of PCTs were completed in 2002. Many more have now been completed. These early PCT pilots included North Peterborough, Hillingdon, Fenland and Central Manchester PCTs. These are among the longer established PCTs, yet the Commission for Health Improvement (now known as the Healthcare Commission) raised concerns about both commissioning and management capacity. The reviews also exposed an interesting issue. Chris Town, then chief executive of North Peterborough PCT, expressed concerns over the levels of responsibility CHI expected PCTs to have, for such issues as health and safety in GP practices: ‘GPs are independent. You can’t expect to have that level of control for the day-to-day running of a practice’, he commented. In a world of managed primary care, government might indeed want PCTs to do just this. Feedback from the evaluation of these has been used to refine the review methods, now being rolled out to all PCTs. NHS influencers will need to view the results of these at www.healthcarecommission.org.uk. In terms of the wider performance management of PCTs, like the acute trusts, PCTs were star rated for the first time in summer 2003. It is important for NHS influencers to be aware of the rating of their PCTs. The pilot indicators used fell into three groups:
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