Review

Having fun with PCGs

WRITING INVESTMENT PLANS AND HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMMES
THE PCG TEAM BUILDER
THE PCG TOOL KIT
Roy Lilley
Radcliffe Medical Press, 1999

This trio of books offers a do-it-yourself kit for Primary Care Group development. They focus on techniques such as teambuilding, business planning and the design of PCG structure and processes, and are designed to give ‘good advice and common sense’ to PCG boards. They are described as ‘workbooks’, not textbooks, and the reader is advised to ‘make friends’ with them. This is not difficult since all are very user-friendly, with large text, ample note space, and plenty of those symbols which alert you to exercises, think boxes, tips and hazard warnings. It is easy to dip in and out and pick up quite a lot in the process, especially if you are new to management or using ideas from the world of business. They are fun to read and many of the exercises look fun to do.

But this ‘fun’ approach, although appealing, is tempered by a recognition of the realities facing PCGs. For, as Lilley points out in The PCG Tool Kit, ‘there is much more to running an £80m organisation than you think – while still doing the day job as a doctor, manager or nurse…’, as most PCG board members must do. The scale of the tasks PCGs must tackle is suitably highlighted in Lilley’s index of the 124 standing financial instructions which form the infrastructure for a public body such as a PCG.

Still, as Lilley points out, it is up to PCGs to dictate the pace of change, and these books would certainly help boards to understand what is required and give some good, practical tips on how to start. But they don’t tell the reader how to make the time to do it. I would love to have the chance to use them as part of the development of the PCG board that I sit on, but unfortunately we haven’t so far had the time.