A total of 196 CCGs have voiced an interest in co-commissioning primary medical care at NHS England’s board meeting last week and have said they are ready to start implementing changes as soon as possible.
Delegation of powers was requested by 74 CCGs, which entails greater freedom with contractual decisions such as negotiating PMS contracts and monitoring contractual performance, whilst of the current CCGs “20 will be ready now, and 45 will be ready soon”, according to NHS England’s Chief Operating Officer, Dame Barbara Hakin
A total of 196 CCGs have voiced an interest in co-commissioning primary medical care at NHS England’s board meeting last week and have said they are ready to start implementing changes as soon as possible.
Delegation of powers was requested by 74 CCGs, which entails greater freedom with contractual decisions such as negotiating PMS contracts and monitoring contractual performance, whilst of the current CCGs “20 will be ready now, and 45 will be ready soon”, according to NHS England’s Chief Operating Officer, Dame Barbara Hakin
Of the CCGs that have shown interest in co-commissioning, 110 would like to jointly commission, which involves forming a joint committee with area teams, whilst 19 CCGs wanted more communication with local area teams.
However, Dame Barbara Hakin warned of the possibility of conflict of interest.
She said: “We will be looking particularly at those expressions of interest which include delegated authority, because those are the ones… where we have to be very vigilant about conflicts of interest.”
“We will need to test every single one of those and make sure, that where they are making decisions about GP service, those conflicts of interest are covered.”
NHS England will now ensure any CCGs wishing for “delegated authority” must undergo audits for their governance process to make sure there are no potential conflicts of interest and that GPs remove themselves from decisions when conflicts are present, according to Dame Barbara.
She said: “They should already have in place arrangements whereby GPs who have any interests declare it, as we do here [at NHS England], and stand aside from any decisions or discussions that are to be made.”
These plans have been opposed by GP leaders at the annual LMCs conference in Harrogate.
