Commissioning

Plans and incentives published for commissioners

The NHS Commissioning Board has published its planning guidance for the first year that CCGs will be in control of the majority of the NHS budget, 2013-14.

‘Everyone counts: Planning for patients’ will give the public more information and greater control over their care, as well as helping clinicians to deliver better services.

The plan outlines incentives that will be used to improve specific services and the NHS Commissioning Board is publishing comparative information on outcomes for patients to support planning services locally.

The board has allocated £65.6bn of the overall NHS budget in England for commissioning, which is an increase of 2.6%. CCGs will receive £64.7bn, an equal 2.3% increase each compared to their share of PCT spending in 2012/13.

The allocation to local authorities to support collaboration on social care priorities will rise from £622m to £859m.

The NHS Commissioning Board will also commission services including specialised healthcare, primary care and services for the military, prisoners and offenders, with a budget of £25.4bn.

The plan highlights key aims for the NHS, including listening to patients more, with greater opportunities to leave feedback, as well as a group set up to consider how to implement seven-day working, which will report in autumn 2013.

Additionally the NHS will focus on preventing people from dying prematurely, enhance the quality of life for patients with long-term conditions, help people recover from periods of ill health or injury, ensure people have a positive experience of care and care for patients in a safe environment.

Financial incentives will be paid to all CCGs that improve or achieve on national measures such as the potential years of life lost from causes considered amenable to healthcare, avoidable emergency admissions, friends & family test and incidence of healthcare associated infections.

The NHS Commissioning Board is launching an urgent review of the approach to funding allocations to CCGs amid concerns that the most money is going to those areas which already have the best health outcomes.

Any referral to treatment waits of more than 52 weeks should attract financial penalties; ambulance handovers should not take more than 15 minutes; zero tolerance approach to MRSA and significant reductions in Clostridum difficile; and no patient should tolerate an operation being cancelled for a second time.

Sir David Nicholson, the NHS Commissioning Board's chief executive, said: “The NHS can be justly proud of its achievements. People wait less, they are diagnosed and referred quicker and our hospitals have fewer infections. But everyone in the NHS knows we must continue to improve.

“There are big challenges – not least the financial backdrop – but we must be ambitious. We want to make the NHS the best customer service in the world by doing more to put patients in the driving seat. We are determined to focus on outcomes and the rights people have under the NHS Constitution, as well as ensure those most in need gain most from the support we provide.

“At the heart of our approach is local control over decision making. We want to put power in the hands of clinicians who know their patients best. We want to give them the money, information and tools to do the job. And we want the public to have the information they need to make choices and participate fully in the development of their health services.”

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