Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust is the largest Primary Care Trust in Scotland, with an annual budget of over £400m.

They provide care and treatment to meet the healthcare needs of almost 1,000,000 people in hospitals, health centres, clinics and local communities throughout Greater Glasgow.

Directly employing around 6,000 people, the Trust also works closely with over 2,500 independent contractors and their staff in primary care services. In addition to Primary Care services, the Trust is responsible for the management and delivery of Learning Disability and Mental Health services.

The Primary Care Trust was formed in April 1999 and comprises the staff and services which were formerly part of Greater Glasgow Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust, together with responsibility for primary care services. This meant independent primary care contractors, such as GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists, were brought into the framework of an NHS Trust for the first time. (Similar changes took place throughout Scotland at this time.)

The Primary Care Trust incorporates sixteen local health care co-operatives (LHCCs) which bring together primary care contractors, and are responsible for developing primary care and community health services at a local level within the Greater Glasgow area.

Partnership, with other agencies, with local communities and service users, and with employee organisations, is an underpinning theme in every area of the Trust. They work closely with Greater Glasgow Health Board, who commission their services, to ensure that the targets set out in the Board's Health Improvement Programme are achieved, and are developing increasingly strong links with the Acute Trusts.

The Trust is also involved in a number of partnership initiatives with local authorities and the Scottish Executive.

The Trust provides hospital services from a number of sites for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities. However, the development of services for people in their own homes and in their local communities lies at the heart of the Trust's objectives.

Working with their partners, they aim to more closely integrate hospital, community and primary care services and shift the balance of care from institutional settings to local community settings wherever this is possible and desirable. By working together and sharing expertise they are looking forward with confidence to the future of joint health and community care services throughout Greater Glasgow.

Source = Trust Web-Site