Rochdale Primary Care Trust Responds to Councillor Rowen

Date published: 29/03/2006

Trevor Purt, Chief Executive of the Rochdale Primary Care Trust has issued a response to Councillor Paul Rowen's comments about PCT workforce statistics. In a written reply to MP Rowen's statement the PCT has highlighted the importance of its staff and clarified its role within the medical community. Trevor Purt insists that the numbers of PCT employed nursing staff has increased considerably and the increased employment in management, infrastructure, clerical & admin staff simply reflects that in 02/03 they were a new organisation without any infrastructure.

The chief executive highlighted the importance off all of the individuals employed by the PCT, and emphasised how all of the staff assisted in providing healthcare throughout Rochdale. He said, "I would suggest that it is unfair to imply that our 'back room staff' are a drain on the NHS budget and take money away from healthcare.  This staff group is an essential part of the organisation and performs many valuable functions in support of our front line staff. An example of this would be Administrative & Clerical staff ensuring nurses and other medical professionals are released from administrative duties (record keeping, appointment making etc) and therefore free to concentrate on their clinical duties.  Another would be our Health Promotion Team which concentrates on prevention rather than cure and works closely with the Council across the Borough in providing joint initiatives. The support of our infrastructure staff means that our medical staff can do what they do best – provide better care for our patients."

The PCT protested their innocence over accusations that it was culpable for the lack of GPs in the area due to over-spending in other areas and that the PCT is doing everything it can to attract doctors to Rochdale. Purt continued, "The fact is that the PCT does not usually directly employ Doctors, and, whilst Rochdale per capita has a minor shortfall of GPs to patient numbers against the national average, this can be attributed to the difficulty of recruiting partners to GP practices rather than a funding issue."

"The majority of GPs in Rochdale, as everywhere else in the country, are independent contractors and own their businesses.  It is, generally speaking, for practices to recruit new doctors when partners retire or leave.  It would also be a business decision for a practice to recruit additional partners if it wished.   It is the PCT’s responsibility to ensure that all practices within Rochdale provide the required levels of service to their patients."

He went on to state that the PCT is trying to encourage more GPs to come to Rochdale by providing state-of-the-art facilities through the NHS LIFT scheme. He ended his letter to the Rochdale MP by stating how the PCT is trying to save on employment costs following a recent consultation period which proposed there should only be one PCT for Rochdale; if approved this will mean a 15% saving on management and infrastructures costs, leaving extra savings that would be reinvested into local healthcare.