Authors : Geoffrey Meads , 1Anthony J. Riley, 1Geoffrey Harding, 1Martin R. , Underwood and 1Yvonne H. Carter
Abstract: A four year evaluation of the new local contracts for primary care services in England indicates substantial service improvements for some of the country`s most marginalised patient groups. In many instances surgery oriented primary medical services have now extended to community based primary health care, with non-NHS agencies contributing effectively to this change. The empirical findings suggest that, in converting the previous political administration`s market oriented legislative reforms to its own priorities for collaboration and decentralisation, the post-1997 Labour government has effectively adapted a previously centralist model of public policy implementation for the purposes of local development, to achieve swift gains on these priorities. This approach, however, may simply have circumvented long standing issues of flawed organisational and professional development. These could still jeopardise the sustainability of both the local improvements in primary care and its central direction of policies in this health sector as it proceeds to introduce a new national contract for General Medical Services in 2004.
Geoffrey Meads , 1Anthony J. Riley, , 1Geoffrey Harding, , 1Martin R. , Underwood and 1Yvonne H. Carter , 2003. New Organisational Developments for Primary Healthcare in the United Kingdom. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 1: 57-64.