PCTs urge GPs to refer patients to under-utilised ISTCs

Bosses at Western Cheshire primary care trust (PCT) have has told GPs to refer patients requiring hip and knee surgery to the Cheshire and Merseyside independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) because the contract is currently being ‘under-utilised’.According to a report in Health Service Journal, the PCT’s director of commissioning and health outcomes Graham Atkinson and…