Family practitioner committees were established by the National Health Service Re-organisation Act 1973. They replaced local executive councils which had been established in 1948 to manage primary care. Executive councils were direct descendants of the insurance committees established by section 59 of the

National Insurance Act 1911 The National Insurance Act 1911 created National Insurance, originally a system of health insurance for industrial workers in Great Britain based on contributions from employers, the government, and the workers themselves. It was one of the foun ...

but with additional responsibility for NHS dentistry and NHS optician services. Their role was essentially neutral and routine. They played little part in developing the services they administered. There were 138 executive councils in England and Wales and 25 in Scotland. The role of the council was to maintain GPs’ lists of patients and to receive practitioners’ claims for payment. It was headed by an administrator with managerial control only over the staff, not the practitioners. Each family practitioner committee had thirty members, eleven of which were appointed by the

area health authority Area health authorities were 90 bodies responsible for administering the National Health Service, established in England by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 in 1974. Each covered a geographical population which matched a Local Go ...

with which it was coterminous. Eight were appointed by the local medical committee, three by the local dental committee, two by the local pharmaceutical committee, two by the local optical committee and four by the local authority. One of the tasks of the committee was to maintain lists of registered patients and registered practitioners. The

National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 The National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (c 19) introduced an internal market into the supply of healthcare in the United Kingdom, making the state an 'enabler' rather than a supplier of health and social care provision.Health and S ...

abolished the committees and they were replaced by family health services authorities. Nearly half of all family practitioner committee administrators were sacked, and the new appointees came from outside the NHS, nearly all from industry or the armed forces. The functions of the FHSAs were later subsumed into primary care trusts. The Family Health Services Appeal Authority was established to hear appeals and applications resulting from decisions made about the inclusion of patients and practitioners in lists. It was abolished in 2005.

References

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External links

National Health Service Re-organisation Act 1973
Defunct National Health Service organisations National Health Service (England)