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Nurses rebel at PCT shake-up

GOVERNMENT plans to force the Camden Primary Care Trust to use private companies and voluntary groups to provide health services have come under attack from rebel Labour MPs and health unions.
The Royal College of Nurses this week threatened to take health minister Patricia Hewitt to a judicial review to halt the proposals. Under the scheme PCT’s would have to contract out services like district nursing, family planning, chiropody and home carers. The RCN added they feared it would be reducing the NHS to “little more than a logo”.
Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, a former health minister, is a known critic of the proposals and staff working for the Camden PCT – responsible for 220,000 people with an annual budget of £286m – say they believe the plans would hurt the sick and elderly.
There are fears among health professionals that if voluntary groups and private companies took on extra roles they would be forced to sacrifice quality care to keep costs down.
Meanwhile, the Camden PCT discovered on Tuesday it would not be axed under other proposals that would have seen it swallowed up into a super sized health trust covering a swathe of north London. The scheme would link up Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Islington and Camden health authorities in a bid to make it easier for PCT’s to bargain collectively for services.
But the U-turn means Camden PCT will continue to look after health care in the borough. Chief executive Rob Larkman said: “The Camden PCT strongly supported the retention of the borough based PCT’s as being the best way of serving the needs of local people.”



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