Primary Care Trust

An NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) is a type of NHS Trust - in effect a public sector corporation that provides services on behalf of the NHS. They are not 'trusts' in the legal sense of the term.

From the NHSs own site:

PCTs make decisions about how NHS resources are invested and what health services are provided at a local level. These decisions are made in the context of national policies and standards set by the Department of Health, regional strategies agreed with other PCTs and Strategic Health Authorities, and the specific health needs and priorities of the local population. PCT strategies include both short term plans setting out what changes will be made over the next year, and longer-term plans for improving the whole health care system.

The latter might include changes to the configuration of hospitals and health centres across a region, the introduction of programmes to help people improve their own health and to care for themselves and their families more effectively, and plans to introduce new technologies and ways of working to make health services more efficient.