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Out-of-Hours Care

No. I shall make progress, then I will give way to some people. I say a few words and am then interrupted almost immediately. There are others on the Back Benches who want to make a contribution, so if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will give way to him a little later. PCTs were reminded of these duties in the Healthcare Commission's national review of urgent and emergency care, which again concluded that out-of-hours care had improved, but warned that PCTs should scrutinise their out-of-hours care more closely to meet their legal responsibilities to provide safe, high-quality care. The third level of control is the employer. This can be the PCT or, more often, a company or co-operative contracted by the PCT. The employer should be contractually bound by the PCT to check qualifications and ensure that the GPs it employs are competent. That is part of the basic controls. In October 2009, the CQC issued an interim statement on its inquiry into the provision of out-of-hours services by Take Care Now to remind PCTs that they were already obliged to have in place robust arrangements for commissioning and for performance and contract management. The CQC emphasised the need for PCTs to assure themselves that all out-of-hours GPs, including locums, are fit to practise.