An exploratory study of the role and training needs of one primary care trust’s professional executive committee members

The UK Government’s centrepiece for reforming the National Health Service (NHS) is set out in The NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000). The document provides an outline for a paradigm shift from a centralized, bureaucratically controlled NHS to a devolved patient-centred health care service, underpinned by an increase in spending over the next five years. The redesign of the NHS is reinforced in Shifting the Balance of Power (Department of Health, 2001), which states that organizational changes to support the long-term Primary Health Care Research and Development 2005; 6: 149–161