Duty of Primary Care Trusts
36.All NHS bodies are currently under a duty under section 45 of the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 to ensure they have arrangements in place for the purpose of monitoring and improving the quality of care.
37.Section 139 amends the National Health Service Act 2006 (‘NHS Act 2006’) by inserting a duty on PCTs to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the quality of healthcare provided by or for them. This duty replaces the current duty to improve quality in section 45 of the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003, requiring on-going improvement activity, and is aligned more closely with the duty imposed on English local authorities by section 3 of the Local Government Act 1999. The duty in section 45 of the 2003 Act will cease to apply in relation to English NHS bodies.