NICE Launch Two Guides To Support Effective Commissioning Of Services: Faecal Incontinence And Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, UK

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Mental Health
Article Date: 17 Apr 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published a further two new commissioning guides to help the NHS in England effectively commission evidence-based care for patients. The guides cover the following services:

- Faecal incontinence
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for common mental health problems

Each commissioning guide signposts and provides topic-specific information on key clinical and service-related issues to consider during the commissioning process. They also offer an indicative benchmark of activity to help commissioners determine the level of service needed locally. Within each commissioning guide, an interactive tool provides data for local comparison against the benchmark and resources to estimate and inform the cost of commissioning intentions. The Institute aims to produce up to 10 commissioning guides a year. These will be updated annually, with new releases timed to have maximum impact on the annual commissioning process.

Since January, NICE has published eight commissioning guides and updated commissioning tools published in 2007. Both the updated and new commissioning tools offer enhanced functionality to end users. They now allow commissioners in Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) to log in and view data at Primary Care Trust (PCT) level. GP practices within a commissioning group/cluster can also give other practices in their cluster permission to view their data and to model commissioning intentions for the group.

Dr Dinah Roy, Locality Clinical Lead and Chair, Sedgefield Practice Based Commissioning Group, County Durham PCT, and NHS Alliance representative said: "In one place I can now find a pointer to every dimension I should capture when commissioning a service - theoretical background information and practical information on how to pull the service together. Developing commissioning pathways is very time-consuming, but thanks to these guides, the process is now far more efficient. Previously, to get data on my local population, for example referral patterns, I would need to ask local practices or the PCT. The commissioning guides provide the latest Dr Foster data on my area, and also tell me at the beginning of the process what information I need to go away and find - so in this way they definitely give me a 'head start'."

Jon Tuppen, General Medical Practitioner with Special Interest, South West Essex PCT said: "The increasing suite of commissioning tools being offered by NICE are extremely useful to support commissioning at PCT and PBC level. The link to evidence, templates that automatically collect local data, but can also be locally changed, and the consistent format between subjects provides a great tool to assist local decision making. Previously I would have to put commissioning model work on hold for three months whilst I gathered together important data. As the key data is available within the commissioning guides, it means I can now focus my time on working with providers to make sure we are delivering a safe and effective service to patients."

To access the guides go to here.

NICE is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)