05.06.15
Health secretary announces new rating system for CCGs
CCGs could face being put into special measures as they become subject to a new traffic light rating system, the health secretary has announced.
Speaking at the NHS Confederation annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, Jeremy Hunt said that he had commissioned the King’s Fund to “develop some transparent metrics that look at the provision of healthcare in every part of the country as the proper and correct way of holding CCGs accountable for the way they deliver healthcare”.
The proposals aren’t finalised, as the King’s Fund are just starting their work, but in their current iteration they involve a green (good), blue (okay), and red (failing) rating system for five patient groups.
The idea, Hunt said, is that everyone will be a patient in one of the groups. They are: older people (over 70); other people with long-term conditions; those with mental health conditions; mums and children; and the generally healthy.
The CCGs’ performance for each group will be based on ‘access’, ‘clinical outcomes’ and ‘prevention’, he added.
Two further categories include ‘resilience’ – including preparations for winter – and ‘transformation’, for longer term projects.
How these factors are weighted is still being debated and it is one of the areas that the King’s Fund will work on.
“The intention here is that we are able to leave you alone if you are getting lots of green ticks and blue okays. But on behalf of patients we have a responsibility to step in if we have persistent failure that is not being addressed,” Hunt said.
The health secretary acknowledged that how care is provided is not just about the CCG, but as they control the funding he believes they have to be ultimately responsible.
“Of course it’s not just going to be about the CCG, it’s going to be about the mental health provider, it’ll be about the service offered through GPs and so on. But in the end the CCGs hold the cheque book, so they are responsible for making it work.”
Hunt added that these new CCG ratings would be “vital” in determining where the newly announced “success regimes” would be implemented.
NHE reported earlier this week that NHS England, Monitor and the Trust Development Authority were working together to place entire regions into special measures under the new “success regime” scheme.
The first areas to be subject to the new regimes are Essex, north Cumbria, and northern, eastern and western Devon (Torbay and south Devon are not included).
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