Transforming our health care system: Ten priorities for commissioners
This paper was originally published in March 2011. It has been updated to reflect the changes in the NHS from 1 April 2013.
Health care commissioners will need to deliver a sustainable system in the face of the most challenging financial and organisational environment seen in decades.
They must shift the current emphasis on acute and episodic care towards prevention, self-care and integrated and well co-ordinated care to cope with an aging population and increased prevalence of chronic diseases. And they will need to direct resources to the patients with greatest need and redress the 'inverse care law' by which those who need the most care often receive the least.
The new NHS from 1 April 2013
As of 1 April 2013, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for the majority of the NHS budget – more than £65 billion of public money. At the same time, public health budgets of £2.7 billion are transferring to local authorities, while NHS England (formerly the NHS Commissioning Board), through its 27 area teams, takes responsibility for commissioning primary care (£13 billion) and specialised services (£12 billion). It is hoped that the new health and wellbeing boards, convened by local authorities, will play a key role in co-ordinating the activities of these different groups of commissioners, while commissioning support units – also new – will provide a range of services to clinical commissioning groups and NHS England to help them to perform their functions effectively.
Our ten priorities for commissioners
We set out our updated ten priorities for action to help commissioners transform the health care system. You can download the full paper below:
Transforming our health care system: ten priorities for commissioners
Comments
Interested in opportunities for private sector health and wellbeing (physio and beyond)
This paper focuses on processes (what needs to be done), without addressing the information needed to make better decisions. Given the lack of data about patient-perceived outcomes and experience with real-time feedback to patients, clinicians and managers, it is surprising to see that the provision of useful key performance indicators for each of the 5 quality domains is not prioritised. After all, you can't safely improve what you are not measuring.
Hopefully an interesting document
Take away all the fanciful government rhetoric and it comes down to money/cost rather than the needs of the patient or should i say the user. I predict that patients across the country will see their treatment curtailed in someway or other.
1) Unsurprisingly as clinicians you hardly mention the (informal) carer. More care will take place in the community - the hospital at home - so more training and support needs to be given to the 24 hour care provider who can directly improve self-management / emergency trips to hospital / medicine management / etc.
2) Why do you forget that the mentally ill actually have shorter lifespans than the physically ill so why no suggestions in 5 to improve systems for checking the physical health of those with mental problems
3) the real debate ought to be should we spend so much money on expensive attempts to lengthen life (often for very limited return) when perhaps we should simply focus on making our remaining years more worthwhile e.g. the young disabled, physical and mental?
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