The Health service journal
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Research with six primary care trusts, started in 2001, suggests that many lack access to relevant expertise in human resources management. Where PCTs do have human resources directors, they are often being asked to act on strategic issues which are outside their experience. PCTs required to rely on acute trusts' HR departments for HR expertise find this unsatisfactory as the issues facing the two sectors are so different. The status of HR management in PCTs needs to be boosted.
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A 2001 survey of 203 doctors, nurses and midwives who had spent an average of 15 years in the NHS conducted at a teaching hospital in Belfast, showed poor understanding of the government's 'new NHS' agenda. Seventy-nine per cent were unaware that there was a new NHS. ⋯ Only 51 per cent could name the health secretary. Much work needs to be done to bring home the importance of the government's quality agenda to clinical staff.