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Press release: NHS Confederation says new Audit Commission reports highlight the bright future for primary care

10 Mar 2004

The NHS Confederation welcomes today's two reports by the Audit Commission, which add to the evidence that important progress has been made in primary care and offer examples of the bright future for patients due to new ways of working.
Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "These reports clearly highlight the bright future for NHS primary care, and since their data was collected more progress has been made. New care pathways in primary care are cutting patient waiting times by reducing the need for hospital referrals. The new GMS contract will further encourage GPs to provide more specialist services, and as PCTs continue to mature as organisations we will increasingly see more patients treated quicker and closer to home."
Gill added: "Whilst there has been record financial investment in the NHS, the scale of the challenging agenda facing PCTs is enormous. We recognise the Audit Commission's concerns on variation in provision, but tackling this is one of a very large number of issues that PCTs are being asked to deal with simultaneously."

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation represents the organisations that make up the NHS. Our ordinary members include the majority of NHS trusts, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; trusts and NHS boards in Scotland; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.
   

Contact details

1. Contact Media Relations Manager Joanna Clason on 020 7074 3306 or 07798 571078 or Senior Media Officer Amy Darlington on 020 7074 3304 or 07767 770309. For out of hours media enquiries, please call the Duty Press Officer on 07880 500726.
   

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