Giving clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) part of the responsibility for commissioning primary care will be one of the first tasks handled by the new chief executive of NHS England.
Talking to the health select committee, Simon Stevens said that there is an “opportunity for CCGs to drive change.”
He said: “I think CCGs probably will do well when they can have more responsibility for some of the primary care services in their area.
Giving clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) part of the responsibility for commissioning primary care will be one of the first tasks handled by the new chief executive of NHS England.
Talking to the health select committee, Simon Stevens said that there is an “opportunity for CCGs to drive change.”
He said: “I think CCGs probably will do well when they can have more responsibility for some of the primary care services in their area.
“We will have to make some changes around how commissioning for specialist services is done as well, so that we have that population focus rather than a three-way split in the local resourcing.”
Stephens revealed that more information will be released tomorrow (1 May 2014) in "outline terms".
Sir David Nicholson’s successor added that enabling CCGs to have more of a say in how local primary care services are run could help to fix the workforce crisis.
Stephens noted that although the general practice workforce is growing, it does not correspond with the rising number of secondary care consultants.
“There has been a 21% increase in the number of GPs since 200 but that is a by far smaller proportional increase than the increase in the number of consultants in hospitals, which I think has been more like 76%,” he said.
“I think it is an interesting questions as to whether we have got the balance out of kilter there, and if we have, what are we going to do about it going forward. And one of the answers I think is to enable CCGs to have more impact over the decisions that are made about spending in primary care services.”
NHS Confederation chief executive Rob Webster said: “This was a welcome appearance by Simon Stevens. The NHS is currently working through the biggest challenges it has faced for a generation. Simon’s focus on system solutions, leadership at all levels and references to the need for a culture of openness, and dealing with all health- and staff-related issues before they become of major concern to our staff or patients, are particularly welcome.
