A brief word from the chair...
After intense planning in Q1, implementation of many of the 2005 HCA activities is now in the ‘busy behind the scenes' phase. HCA membership also continues to increase steadily, with Edelman being the latest joiners in April.

Training matters
The HCA training programme has got off to a flying start in 2005 with 77 personnel from 34 member companies attending one of the three training events which have taken place so far this year. The next event for members to put in their diaries is the ever-popular media relations workshop. This is designed for consultancy and in-house communications personnel implementing media relations activities and/or those who need a strong understanding of the consumer and medical media, particularly from a UK perspective. It will be held on 22 June 2005 and places are going fast. Registration details are available from the HCA website by clicking here.

The election winners... and losers...
by Nick Smith, News editor of Primary Care Report magazine
Labour have secured an historic third term and while public concerns over Iraq and Tony Blair's honesty have harmed the party in the polls, reforms to services including the NHS are seen as having contributed to the party's victory. Despite a reduced majority of 67 nothing in the Government's health policy looks likely to cause retrospective back-bench angst and Mr Blair will expect new health secretary Patricia Hewitt to continue in the established direction.

The NHS can expect a potentially sharp reduction in the number of PCTs. Depending on what legislative changes around the formation of the bodies are required - and presuming the Department of Health waits for the supposedly required legislation which has not always been the case - PCT numbers could drop to between 200 and 100 over the next 18 months. While NHS managers would like these changes to be locally driven with opportunistic mergers, most observers think it's unlikely to be allowed. Despite recent hiccups with foundation trusts and the delayed implementation of payment by results, both retain high level support. However, problems in the coding for the payment by results tariff, especially within mental health, remain - this may hinder smooth implementation of the system.

Practice-based commissioning (PBC) is also high on the agenda as ministers push their latest attempt - following PCGs and PCT professional executive committees - to engage clinicians in commissioning. With the financial advantages of PBC becoming more apparent to GP practices and with new GMS/PMS into its second year, PBC may receive a boost as GPs can capitalise on it to increase practice profits. Computerising the NHS, choice, clinical governance, and closer health-social care links will all remain on the agenda, and public health may move into a new phase as the NHS seeks to control its costs.

Build your contacts
Members are encouraged to build the contacts within their organisations so that HCA communications, such as this Newsletter, can be distributed directly to nominated individuals. The system, housed in the member-only password protected area of the website is easy to use in order to build and update the contacts in your organisation.

Linking to the HCA website
Many member organisations have already established a reciprocal link between their own and the HCA website (www.hca-uk.org). As the number of links to the website increase, the more important the internet search engines perceive it to be and therefore the higher our website will be listed in the rankings.