A survey and audit of the first 'Guides to Local Health Services' produced by Primary Care Trusts in England.

Providing more information for the public about the range and quality of health services is an important part of improving accountability, quality and public responsiveness. Most sources of information to date have failed to address the information needs of people about their local services. The launch in England in 2002 of a new publication,Guides to Local Health Services, was designed to address this deficiency. We conducted an audit of the firstGuides, and surveyed those responsible for their production, in order to examine theGuides’ development, content, presentation and dissemination, and to critique the purpose of the initiative.A semi-structured questionnaire survey of those responsible for producing theGuides, and an audit of theGuidesproduced by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).Most PCTs complied with central guidance about structure and content, but in meeting multiple requirements theGuideslost their clarity of purpose. The content was dominated by information relating to financial and strategic accountability. In producing theGuides, external consultation was limited, particularly with the public but also with local partnership providers of health and social care. The main issues were the lack of a clear focus forGuideinformation, the level of central direction, the short production lead times, difficulties with distribution, and the many competing demands being made on PCT resources.Guidecontent should be clearly focused on information that the public wants. Greater responsibility should be devolved to front line PCT staff to determine content in consultation with local users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]