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This section contains guidance documents on commissioning arrangements in the NHS, including the Commissioning a patient-led NHS change programme, practice-based commissioning and specialised services.
Expert, imaginative commissioning is central to a patient-led NHS and changes to the organisation of primary care are in making the NHS fit for the 21st century. These pages provide all the key documents and updates on the progress of the NHS in delivering this programme.
Practice based commissioning enables GPs and other front line clinicians to redesign services that better meet the needs of their patients.
How organisations that are run along business lines, but where any profits are reinvested into the community or into service developments, offer patients and users a greater choice from a wider selection of convenient, innovative and responsive services.
Broadly, specialised services are those with low patient numbers but which need a critical mass of patients to make treatment centres cost effective. Particular challenges for these services include training specialist staff, supporting high quality research programmes, and making the best use of scarce resources like expertise, high tech equipment and donated organs. Specialised services are subject to different commissioning arrangements than other NHS services.
This document sets out for commissioners using practice-based commissioning (PBC) and primary care trusts (PCTs) some techniques to help identify areas where services can be redesigned, thereby freeing up resources to focus on clinically needy patients. Care and resource utilisation (CRU) is all about giving the patient the right treatment in the right place at the right time.
The diabetes commissioning toolkit provides advice for all commissioners of diabetes services. It describes how to carry out a health needs assessment for a local diabetes population and provides a generic specification for diabetes care, signposting recognised quality markers and suggesting key outcomes for the service.
This paper is intended to be used as a best practice guide. The aim is to clarify the existing roles and responsibilities in the NHS to ensure that consistent and appropriate commissioning and performance management arrangements for screening programmes are in place.
The Commissioning Framework provides guidance to primary care trusts (PCTs) in support of their role as commissioners of the services provided by NHS Direct. It applies to 2006/07 only. Further guidance on the longer term position will be issued later in the year.
The National Health Service (Functions of Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts and Administration Arrangements) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 came into force on 1 April 2006 and made changes to the NHS body responsible for long-term care for adults. See paragraphs 65-70 and Annex C of the attached guidance.
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