NICE Publishes Six New Commissioning Guides, UK

Main Category: Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals
Also Included In: Public Health;  Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 18 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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

- otitis media with effusion
- patient education for people with type 2 diabetes
- diagnosis and initial management of stroke
- diagnosis and initial management of transient ischaemic attack
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults and young people in transition
- insulin pump therapy.

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 primary care trust and practice-based 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.

Three online tutorials are also available on the commissioning tools to help users understand their functionality and how to get the most out of their use. The tutorials provide 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.

Dr Christine McLeod, Head of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Public Health Network and Deputy Director of Public Health - NHS Cambridgeshire said: "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.

Source
Annie Coppel
Associate Director - Commissioning
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Level 1A | City Tower | Piccadilly Plaza | Manchester M1 4BD | United Kingdom
http://www.nice.org.uk

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