Newham Primary Care Trust serves the community of the London Borough of Newham. It employs around 1,050 staff based across 23 sites, and encompasses all 65 GP practices, 69 pharmacist, 55 optician and 80 dentist sites in the borough. The Annual Budget is £439,556,000.
The community is culturally the most diverse of all London boroughs, with people from a rich variety of ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds. The population is very young, with the highest proportion in the UK of children under one year and the third highest proportion of under 16s. Substantial health inequalities and the adverse health impact of poverty and deprivation mean that the borough's health services have a very challenging task.
As well as providing a range of primary & community health services, The Trust commissions most of the primary, community and secondary health care in the borough. Services are provided for children and young people, older people, people with learning disabilities, and those needing family planning and sexual health services.
Provision can be in hospitals, schools, clinics and health centres, GP premises or in the home. The PCT also provides clinical psychology and counselling, community dentistry, foot health, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech & language therapy, community and specialist nursing services.
The Trust works in close partnership with family doctors, dentists, opticians and pharmacists. A number of salaried GPs are also employed.
The overall objective of the PCT is to improve the health of the local population and address health inequalities. Within that objective three broad priority areas have been identified:
• Improving Access to Care for local residents in line with the targets in the NHS plan, whether in primary care, community services, accident and emergency, outpatient or inpatient settings, and ensuring that any inequalities between ethnic groups or geographical areas in the borough are identified and reduced.
• Ensuring the provision of high quality services that meet the needs of the local population, using evidence-based health improvement and modernisation plans to which commissioning decisions are effectively linked. This objective is backed up by effective Clinical Governance mechanisms, patient involvement structures and partnership with other NHS organisations, the Local Authority and the independent sector.
• Workforce development including recruitment and retention measures to minimise staff vacancies, training and development to ensure that staff are equipped with the skills to do their jobs effectively, safeguarding equal opportunities and delivering the Improving Working Lives standard.
Further information is available by telephoning 020 8586 6437
For more information about health services in Newham visit:
Newham PCT
