Family Practitioner Committee

Family Practitioner Committees were established by the National Health Service Re-organisation Act 1973. They replaced Local Executive Councils which had been established in 1948 to manage primary care.

Executive Councils were direct descendants of the Insurance Committees established by section 59 of the National Insurance Act 1911, but with additional responsibility for NHS dentistry and NHS optician services. Their role was essentially neutral and routine. They played little part in developing the services they administered. There were 138 Executive Councils in England and Wales and 25 in Scotland. The role of the Council was to maintain GPs’ lists of patients and to receive practitioners’ claims for payment. It was headed by an Administrator with managerial control only over the staff, not the practitioners.