Primary care trusts (PCTs) are said to be resisting plans to increase competition in healthcare provision by favouring NHS hospitals over private alternatives.

The government's idea is that patients should be able to get NHS treatment at private hospitals and at NHS costs but it has been claimed that 70 out of 151 PCTs are trying to make it more difficult for this to happen. The Cooperation and Competition Panel (CCP), which is carrying out an inquiry into the proposed 'Any Willing Provider' policy, is looking into the matter.

Measures PCTs are said to be taking are reducing the range of treatments that private hospitals can offer NHS patients, putting a cap on the number of people that private hospitals can treat and promising NHS hospitals a guaranteed number of patients. PCTs are also said to have introduced minimum waiting times which prevent private hospitals from offering faster treatment.

The health minister Lord Howe said: "There is no justification, either financial or clinical, for PCTs to restrict patient choice and think that they know better than patients or their doctors where patients should be treated. Any barriers to patient choice must be removed. In the future, Monitor will have legal powers to address restrictions on patient choice."

However, the NHS Confederation's PCT Network told the CCP that the PCTs' behaviour was not inconsistent with the principles and rules of cooperation and competition. The PCT network said that while it had not seen anything to suggest commissioners had gone against competition rules, commissioners "may sometimes appropriately restrict patient choice if it is in the interest of maximising the overall benefits to patients and tax-payers".

The body said that given the challenges its members are facing, the actions taken have generally been legitimate. It was "entirely appropriate" to negotiate prices with providers to promote innovation and efficiency and it was legitimate to tell GPs about the costs of different service providers to improve value for money and not to restrict patient choice.

PCT Network director David Stout said: "Primary care trusts are facing increasingly difficult financial decisions at the moment, but this should not impact on their duty to promote choice to patients undergoing secondary care. If PCTs are deliberately seeking to pervert choice and competition of services without genuine reason for doing so then it is right that they should be investigated. However, we believe that many of the complaints brought against commissioners are not founded on any basis of anti-competitive behaviour."

He added: "GP consortia will be taking on commissioning responsibilities over the next two years and will need to quickly develop their knowledge and skills. It is essential that commissioning and procurement rules are made clear to them so they are properly understood by all parties if the new commissioning landscape is to be as effective as possible."

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=15914