Tendering For Care

The new Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust officially came into being on 1^st October 2006. The new Trust is the result of the merger of the Bournemouth and Poole Teaching Primary Care Trust and Poole Primary Care Trust. The new PCT has an annual budget of £430 million and employs 1,100 staff. The merger was part of a national reform that has enlarged PCTs - which commission health services on behalf of their local populations - and given them more buying power. There will be job losses, but staff are guaranteed payment until next June and any vacancies are being filled with temporary staff until the structure of the new trust is decided and appointments made. One of the keys to the latest NHS reforms is payment by results, which rewards efficiency. Because the money now follows the patient, the new system supports patients' right to choose where they are treated. Another change underway is practice-based commissioning, in which GP surgeries directly commission services according to their own patients' needs. PCTs will be working more closely with independent healthcare providers, voluntary organisations and charities in providing services. Locally there are plans to expand CART, a successful multi-agency Bournemouth scheme to keep older people out of hospital, and to continue working with the two councils in improving the health of the population.