The worst region is the South West in which just 43% of the PCTs have an executive director with voting rights on the board.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN chief executive and general secretary, said: ‘Nurses spend more time with patients than any other health professional, so it makes sense for them to be a key part of the decisions which impact on the care that patients receive.

‘Nurses are often the first to identify Read more »

GPC chairman Dr Laurence Buckman said: ‘We know through LMCs that some PCTs that seemed reluctant to have conversations are now less reluctant.’

He said the GPC was pleased that PCTs were now beginning to ‘follow the spirit of our agreement with NHS Employers about helping practices with prevalence losses’.

Dr Buckman said the PCTs were responding to ‘all sorts of pressure being brought to Read more »

Speaking at this week’s National Association of Primary Care conference in Liverpool, David Nicholson said that some trusts still saw PBC as ‘something PCTs give GPs to do’.

But PBC is ‘not something extra to make GPs happy’, he said. Rather, it is the key to ‘driving the change from being a nationalised industry to a much more diverse system’.

‘We still need to shift the Read more »