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Poor communication between primary care trusts and GPs is seriously compromising the safety of patients in England, a group of MPs said this week.In its latest report the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts also warns that 96% of GPs are failing to report dangerous incidents to the National Patient Safety Agency.For its report, which examines the Department of Health's progress in implementing clinical governance in primary care, the committee had taken evidence from the chief executive of the NHS, the deputy chief medical officer, and the NHS's director general of commissioning.Committee chairman Edward Leigh said, "Too many primary care organisations are paying lip service to the principles of the Department of Health's clinical governance agenda.The lines of communication between the primary care trusts, on the one hand, and their GPs and other healthcare contractors, on the other, are defective."He added: "How can we be confident in the NHS's ability to share learning locally and nationally about what can go wrong in health care when only a tiny proportion of GPs-4%-routinely report patient safety events and incidents to the National Patient Safety Agency?"In response to a series of high profile problems in the 1990s, including the Shipman murders and events at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, the health department introduced its 10 year programme to boost patient safety.The centrepiece was the clinical governance system.The new report suggests, however, that clinical governance is not as well established in primary care as in secondary care.The committee says that this is due largely to the complexity of the role of primary care trusts in commissioning and providing care and to the independence of contractors delivering health care, particularly GPs.The Committee of Public Accounts' 47th report of the current session can be found at www. parliament.uk/pac.Primary� care pay�s only� "lip service" to clinical governance, MPs say� UK NEWS Regulator gives green light to research using human-animal embryos, p 531 WoRld NEWS US me�ical authorities are accuse� o�� ��ailing to act over �octors in �uantanamo, p 53� US me�ical authorities are accuse� o�� ��ailing to act over �octors in �uantanamo, p 53� , p 53� bmj.comNumber o�� bipolar �isor�er �iagnoses leaps among US young people Number o�� bipolar �isor�er �iagnoses leaps among US young people news For the full versions of articles in this section see bmj.com