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Overview of the programme
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Last modified date:8 February 2007
Aims of, and background to, the programme and the pilot projects.
The announcement
On July 26th, health secretary Patricia Hewitt announced the names of the first PCTs to take part in a national programme to improve and expand local NHS services in areas where it has been difficult to recruit GPs and in PCTs who are willing to try an innovative approach to providing primary care. The Department is making £3.8m available to support the programme.
The programme will encourage PCTs, particularly those in disadvantaged communities, to make full use of the existing contractual mechanisms available to them to commission additional new services from entrepreneurial GPs and other primary care providers, including those from the independent and voluntary sectors.
The aims are to:
- improve access to GPs and other primary care professionals for local people
- provide a greater range and number of services close to where patients live
- encourage recruitment of GPs, particularly in areas which have had difficulty recruiting and retaining doctors in the past
- develop a greater range of providers offering primary care services.
A further purpose of the programme is to create a pool of PCTs with expertise in commissioning alternative providers so that they can spread best practice and guidance across the NHS.
The six PCTs in Wave One of the programme are:
- Barking and Dagenham
- City and Hackney Teaching
- Hyndburn and Ribble Valley
- Plymouth Teaching
- South Sefton
- Bradford City Teaching
The additional services that may be available as a result of these pilots include:
- GPs, nurses and other health professionals
- walk-in services
- diagnostic services
Background to the programme
PCTs currently have a range of contractual mechanisms to commission primary care services for local people. They are:
- General Medical Services (GMS) contracts
- Personal Medical Services (PMS) contracts
- Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contracts
- Primary Care Trust Medical Services (PCTMS) contracts
The overwhelming majority of family practices are signed up to either GMS or PMS contracts. But PCTs can also use APMS contracts to enable them to commission services from a wide range of providers, including non-NHS providers, or use PCTMS to commission and provide services themselves.
Up until now, only a few PCTs have used APMS contracts for non-Out of Hours services (OOH), so PCTs nationally have limited experience in commissioning a wider range of services from potential APMS providers.
The programme will give PCTs the support they need by providing legal, procurement and business planning advice. It aims to enable these PCTs to make use of a wider pool of providers, including entrepreneurial GPs to extend the number and range of primary care services available to local communities and to plug gaps in provision where they exist.
The first wave of pilots will get under way in the summer of 2005 with a second wave due to be announced later in the year.
The pilot process
The PCTs taking part in Wave One have already identified the services they would like to provide under the programme and have produced outline specifications for potential providers.
The first stage of the selection process is to advertise for expressions of interest to provide the services that the PCTs have identified. Adverts will be placed in national, specialist and local media.
Learning from the pilots
The experiences of the pilot PCTs will be used to develop learning materials that other PCTs will be able to use - for example if they wish to commission services from a wider range of providers in the future. The Department of Health will also be working with the NHS Confederation and the Primary Care Contracting Advisers to develop learning tools for PCTs.
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