Roles and responsibilities

The NHS has a framework of local organisations responsible for the healthcare of their community. These include Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts (and new Foundation Trusts) and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).

NHS Norfolk has three core functions:

• To work with the local community to improve our population’s health and well being
• To commission (or buy) a comprehensive and equitable range of high quality responsive and efficient services within allocated resources
• To directly provide some of these services ourselves where this gives best value.

One of the key functions of the new NHS Norfolk is commissioning. We receive most of our budget directly from the Department of Health and use this to purchase hospital and other services from NHS and other healthcare providers. We are also responsible for making payments to independent primary care contractors such as GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists.

NHS Norfolk also plays a leading role in the event of a major emergency or incident, working with partner agencies such as the Police, local government and other NHS services (see Major Emergencies - Emergency Planning).