18.12.12
‘Tough choices’ ahead for commissioners
Health professionals and organisations have responded positively to the plans published today by the NHS Commissioning Board.
The plans cover the amount of funding CCGs will receive in 2013/14, and the financial incentives that will be in place to achieve certain outcomes.
Jo Webber, interim director of policy at the NHS Confederation, called for local commissioners to take advantage of the opportunities in the report skill to deliver improvements in their local areas.
She said: “This will require close working relationships with local organisations across health and social care, making sure that services are joined up to provide the best care for people. The balancing of national and local incentives will be crucial if the system is to make the promise of localism a reality.
“Each of the ‘offers’ contained in this guidance present the opportunity to create a truly modern health service. The responsibility is now on local organisations to weave these plans into existing work to create a more improved, responsive health service.
“However, we must not underestimate the extent of these challenges to some organisations already working in a tight financial environment. They are not easy options and will not diminish the need to take some tough choices to make improvements to services a reality.
“The increased focus on information and transparency provides a real opportunity to empower patients to hold their services to account and talk with their feet by choosing the services that offer the best outcomes and all round patient service.”
Director of NHS Employers Dean Royles welcomed the move to consider providing some services seven days a week. He said: “The way patients are cared for and the way they want to be cared for is changing rapidly. We know that services provided at weekends could be so much better and we owe it to patients to change the way we work.”
And Sir Richard Thompson, president of the RCP, added: “Patients deserve the best care in hospitals in the evenings and at weekends.
“In 2010 we recommended that any hospital admitting acutely ill patients should have a consultant physician on-site for at least 12 hours per day, seven days a week, who should have no other duties scheduled during this time.
“We believe that to make this aim a reality, some services will need to be redesigned and may have resource implications.”
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