The news follows last week's announcement of the final plans toreconfigure PCT boundaries by health secretary Patricia Hewitt. Underthe plans, the number of PCTs will be reduced from 303 to 152. Thismeans around a fifth of England's 152 councils will gain co-terminositywith their local PCT.
Eight councils will lose shared borders: Bournemouth; Bracknell Forest;Halton; St Helens; Slough; Southend-on-Sea; Thurrock; and Wokingham
While some PCTs, including those in London, are unchanged, others willcover massive populations. The largest will be Hampshire, which has1.25m residents.
Sue Sylvester, children's services lead at Hampshire and Isle of WightStrategic Health Authority, said merging Hampshire's seven PCTs into onewould help commission services county-wide. She said: "It can be verydifficult when a number of organisations have different arrangements atdifferent levels. This will make it easier to have a strongcommissioning arm for children's services."
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