An NHS primary care trust (PCT) is a type of NHS trust

NHS Trust

A National Health Service trust provides services on behalf of the National Health Service in England and NHS Wales.The trusts are not trusts in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. Each trust is headed by a board consisting of executive and non-executive directors, and is...

, part of the National Health Service

National Health Service (England)

The National Health Service or NHS is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. It is both the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. It is able to function in the way that it does because it is primarily funded through the general taxation system, similar to how...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. PCTs commission primary, community and secondary care from providers. Until 31 may2011 they also provided community services directly. Collectively PCT are responsible for spending around 80% of the total NHS budget. Primary Care Trusts are scheduled for abolition on 31 March 2013.

PCTs have their own budgets and set their own priorities, within the overriding priorities and budgets set by the relevant Strategic Health Authority, and the Department of Health. They provide funding for general practitioner

General practitioner

A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...

s and medical prescriptions; they also commission hospital and mental health services from appropriate NHS trusts or from the private sector. Many PCTs are now calling themselves NHS and then the name of their geographical area to make it easier for local people to understand how the NHS is managed locally.

Management

PCTs are managed by a team of executive director

Executive director

Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...

s headed by a chief executive. These directors are members of the trust's board

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

, together with non-executive director

Non-executive director

A non-executive director or outside director is a member of the board of directors of a company who does not form part of the executive management team. He or she is not an employee of the company or affiliated with it in any other way...

s appointed after open advertisement. The chairman of a trust is a non-executive director. Other board members may include representatives from the trust's Professional Executive Committee (PEC) (elected from local GPs, community nurses, pharmacist

Pharmacist

Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...

s, dentist

Dentist

A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...

s etc.).

The finance and much of the agenda of PCTs is effectively determined by directives from the strategic health authority

NHS Strategic Health Authority

NHS strategic health authorities are part of the structure of the National Health Service in England. Each SHA is responsible for enacting the directives and implementing fiscal policy as dictated by the Department of Health at a regional level. In turn each SHA area contains various NHS trusts...

 (SHA) or the Department of Health.

Restructuring

In 2005 the Government announced that the number of strategic health authorities and primary care trusts would be reduced, the latter by about 50%. The result is that, as of 1 October 2006, there are 152 PCTs (reduced from 303) in England, with an average population of just under 330,000 per trust. After these changes, about 70% of PCTs are coterminous with local authorities having social service responsibilities, which increasingly facilitates joint planning.

On 12th July 2010, Andrew Lansley

Andrew Lansley

Andrew David Lansley, CBE, MP is the UK Secretary of State for Health, who has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Cambridgeshire since the 1997 general election, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Health from June 2004 until becoming Secretary of State for Health in May 2010...

 unveiled a new health White Paper

White paper

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to...

 (which later became the Health and Social Care Bill 2011

Health and Social Care Bill 2011

The Health and Social Care Bill 2011 is proposed health care reform legislation introduced in the House of Commons on 19 January 2011. If passed, the Bill would be the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date. It proposes to abolish NHS...

) describing significant structural changes to the NHS under the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. Among the changes announced, PCTs are to be wholly abolished by 2013 with GP-led Commissioning Consortia assuming most of the commissioning

Practice-based commissioning

Practice Based Commissioning is a United Kingdom Department of Health initiative designed to target financial drivers towards primary care. PBC is about engaging practices and other primary care professionals with the NHS commissioning of services...

responsibilities they formerly held. The public health aspects of PCT business will be taken on by local councils. Strategic health authorities will also be abolished under these plans. Following widespread criticism of the plans, on April 4, 2011, the Government announced a "pause" in the progress of the Health and Social Care Bill to allow the government to 'listen, reflect and improve' the proposals.