NICE Launches New And Updated Guides To Support Effective Commissioning Of Services, UK

Main Category: Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals
Also Included In: Epilepsy;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Mental Health
Article Date: 27 Oct 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published three new commissioning guides to help the NHS in England effectively commission evidence-based care for patients.

The guides cover services for:

accurate diagnosis of the epilepsies in adults
antenatal and postnatal mental health
peer support for women who breastfeed.

Guides also due for publication before the end of the year will cover services for:

- otitis media with effusion
- patient education for people with type 2 diabetes
- smoking cessation for people having elective surgery
- diagnosis and initial management of stroke
- diagnosis and initial management of transient ischaemic attack

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 commissioning tool provides data for local comparison against the benchmark and resources to estimate and inform the cost of commissioning intentions. NICE has updated population, activity and tariff data presented within the 15 commissioning tools already published. The 'one stop' resource now brings together more recently available data and will help users review current commissioning activity and make robust commissioning decisions to improve the range and quality of health services available to patients.

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.

New tutorial

In addition, NICE has published an online tutorial on the commissioning tools to help users understand their functionality and how to get the most out of their use. The tutorial provides step by step instructions on how to use the tools and demonstrates key functions such as how to register as a user, how to create commissioning groups, and how to create and edit commissioning models. Over 750 commissioners have registered so far to use the commissioning tools. It is hoped that the online tutorial will increase registration further and encourage users to make the best use of the commissioning tools.

Dr Christine McLeod, Head of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Public Health Network and Deputy Director of Public Health - NHS Cambridgeshire: "The commissioning guides are easy to navigate with clear information. The commissioning guide on cardiac rehabilitation services proved invaluable to me as the assumptions for calculating the benchmark cardiac rehabilitation population were justified, and because the information on current and future service costing is itemised it is easy to understand what is contributing to overall costs and to replace with local information where available. The information from the tool is also useful for making a case for prioritisation when presenting at Professional Executive Committee (PEC)."

Simon Banks, Senior Specialised Commissioning Manager, North West Specialised Commissioning Team said: "To deliver world-class health care systems and services, the NHS requires world-class commissioners. Commissioners need to be capable, confident and knowledgeable custodians of health care systems, and able to identify and utilise the latest evidence in regard to the services they commission. The NICE commissioning guides provide commissioners with a valuable tool for meeting the challenge of evidence-based commissioning and systems management, offering advice and guidance throughout the commissioning cycle."

To access the guides go to: http://www.nice.org.uk/CommissioningGuides. Ideas for future topic specific guides can be emailed to commissioningguides@nice.org.uk

Source
Annie Coppel
Associate Director - Commissioning
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence