'Cut deficits or lose managers' PCTs warned.(Brief article)

SHAs will consider merging or installing new management at PCTs that continue to struggle financially from early 2008, GP can reveal.

One former DoH adviser warned that the hard-line approach could accelerate the transfer of some PCT commissioning functions to private firms.

South Central SHA chief executive Mark Britnell said trusts would be given 18 months from the date when they became operational in October 2006 to get on track financially.

Mr Britnell described the finances at some PCTs as still 'wobbly'. Milton Keynes PCT, in the South Central region, reported a gross deficit of almost pounds 18 million in November 2006. More than a third of …