Giving GPs budgets for commissioning: what needs to be done? 

This report, published jointly by six organisations including the NHS Confederation’s PCT Network, explores what needs to happen if GPs are to be given responsibility for leading commissioning in the NHS. 

It outlines the opportunities that this new policy direction presents, but it warns that evidence from the UK and overseas suggests the policy will take time to develop and that there will be significant challenges in engaging more than an enthusiastic minority of GPs, reversing avoidable use of costly hospital care, and shifting resources into the community.