Community Hospitals: Capital Investments
Health
Written answers and statements, 18 July 2007
Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria his Department uses to assess the needs of primary care trusts in taking decisions to allocate capital funding for community hospitals.
Ben Bradshaw (Minister of State (Health Services; Minister for the South West), Department of Health; Exeter, Labour)
Each primary care trust makes its own assessment of need and the appropriate pattern of services for its own locality. "Our health, our care, our communities: investing in the future of community hospitals and services" sets out ten design principles for primary care trusts (PCTs) to use as a starting point when considering local service redesign and the role of community hospitals. Strategic health authorities (SHAs) will determine how proposals from PCTs in their area can deliver the strategic needs and priorities across the SHA area.