Making sense of Chinese walls or how to sort the purchasers from the providers.

One of the odd consequences of the white paper is that until NHS Trusts become the norm, districts have to manage their units but as purchasers must keep their distance. Peter Catchpole, Steven Phoenix, David Ellis and Claire Holloway discuss the various ways in which this might be achieved, and describe the model chosen in Mid Downs HA.

Practice activity analysis: collaboration between general practitioners and a family practitioner committee.

The Brent and Harrow family practitioner committee has supported a scheme to enable general practitioners to collect data relating to their practice activity. This paper reports on the operation of the scheme involving 76 general practitioners from 22 practices and the findings. Practice nurse activity was also included. The family practitioner committee undertook an analysis of the data and provided each participating general practitioner with a print-out of his or her consultation rates over a range of activity, enabling general practitioners to make comparisons both with their partners and with the averages for all the practices participating in the scheme. The essential aim is to provide structured information which enables general practitioners to look more objectively at their activity. The family practitioner committee gave an assurance that the figures would not be used to criticize individuals.