Commentary on Sections NHS bodies and their functions: England Section 5: Local Representative Committees
51.Section 5 amends sections 44 and 45 of the 1977 Act consequential on the renaming of HAs as Strategic Health Authorities in England and the devolution of functions to PCTs. Sections 44 and 45 of the 1977 Act currently provide for the recognition by HAs of LRCs formed by family health service practitioners providing GMS, General Dental Services (GDS), Pharmaceutical or General Ophthalmic Services. Doctors and dentists working in PMS or PDS may also opt to be represented by the appropriate LRC. These sections also provide for the HA to attribute funding to these LRCs from payments which would otherwise be payable to the practitioners themselves. These sections currently require that such LRCs must always be co-terminous only with the relevant HA. Section 5 removes the need for LRCs to conform to the boundaries of a single PCT and instead provides for LRCs to establish themselves at the level of one whole PCT area or more; profession by profession, area by area. It also removes the longstanding requirement that LRCs need HA approval to delegate any of their business to a sub-committee of their own members.