Sir David Nicholson sets out commissioning plan

The chief executive of the NHS has written to managers, laying out how he wants the transfer to GP Consortia led commissioning to unfold.

In the letter Sir David warns against repeating mistakes from the past: “There is significant work in designing the new system, on which we want your full participation, but we must not allow that to distract us from the major operational challenges we continue to face

“These will also be challenging times for the whole system as we seek unprecedented quality and productivity improvements. So it is vital that we continue to focus on delivery, particularly as winter approaches.

“Finally, we can only succeed, both in supporting the design of a new system and in continuing to deliver, by working in partnership.”