Practice Commissioning Is The Answer To Wanless

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 12 Sep 2007 - 20:00 PDT

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The NHS Alliance warmly welcomes the thoughtful review on NHS funding and performance by Sir Derek Wanless, published by the King's Fund.

Sir Derek and his co-authors John Appleby and Anthony Harrison are right to conclude that more effort is needed to improve public health and to focus on productivity in the health service. The Alliance would issue one note of warning however. Improvements in productivity must not be at the expense of quality in patient care.

The way forward for the NHS is already in place. Practice based commissioning, where local GP practices are able to manage their own budgets and use savings to improve patient services, has already demonstrated that it can transform health care. There is ample evidence of its potential to transform health services. For instance:

- Re-designed services in Huntingdonshire are expected to save £14.5 million across the county.

- A single GP practice in Lancashire has saved £500,000 in a year. They have employed their own pharmacist to advise on prescribing and medicines management, introduced alternatives such as acupuncture for pain relief and set up their own special teams for mental health, diabetes and heart disease.

- In Bournemouth and Poole, local GPs and the primary care trust have collaborated to set up a community based palliative care service. It has improved the home care of patients who are dying - and is expected to save around £1 million at the same time.

NHS Alliance chief executive Michael Sobanja said:

"The best decisions about use of resources are generally those taken at the frontline, by those who are closest to patients and understand the needs of local communities.

"Clinicians and managers working together through practice based commissioning are producing real benefits for patients and for tax payers. They show that it is possible to squeeze the maximum value out of every pound spent at the same time as providing better patient care."

1. The NHS Alliance is the independent body that represents primary care. Its membership includes PCTs, GP practices and other primary care organisations, alongside individual clinicians, managers and non-executives. Its multi-professional base means it is the only organisation that can bring PCTs and practices together. It has active special interest networks for practice based commissioners, PEC chairs. PCT chief executives, non-executives, primary care providers and more.

2. The examples of commissioning in practice given above are taken from Practice based commissioning: early wins, early lessons, to be published by the NHS Alliance Thursday 13th September.

http://www.nhsalliance.org