Herts PCTs merger welcome
3rd March 2010
Anne Main has welcomed today’s announcement that the two Hertfordshire Primary Care Trusts will merge, with a projected cost saving of £0.5m per year.
Following a consultation in the autumn, the Trusts today announced that, from 1 April 2010, the Primary Care Trusts previously known as East & North Hertfordshire PCT and West Hertfordshire PCT will merge to become NHS Hertfordshire.
Commenting on the announcement, Anne said:
“I welcome this news. The Hertfordshire Primary Care Trusts have basically been operating as a single unit, under the same management, ever since their foundation. It seems sensible, therefore, that they will merge, especially in light of the projected £500,000 savings in administrative costs.
I think that many people were confused as to why the local NHS had two separate Trusts anyway, and hopefully this move will help people to navigate their ways through the layers of bureaucracy a little more easily. In the end, people want money spent on frontline services and not box-ticking and form-filling. If this helps us move towards that it is surely a good thing.”