Primary care groups in the United Kingdom: quality and accountability.

With the introduction of primary care groups (PCGs), the British National Health Service has attempted to integrate delivery, finance, and quality improvement into a locally directed care system with a strong sense of community accountability. PCGs will eventually hold the budgets for primary care, specialist, hospital, and community-based services and have the flexibility to reapportion these budgets. Through clinical governance, PCGs are attempting to coordinate education, guidelines, audit and feedback, and other quality improvement approaches around health problems that are relevant to their patient panels and local communities. PCGs offer other nations attempting to improve the quality and accountability of health care an innovative approach that merits consideration.