Site last updated:
December 2011
Cancer Services Forum currently has 1452 registered members
Commissioning Cancer Drugs and Services. The London Cancer New Drugs Group Meeting
Share
Commissioning: a role for providers and clinicians
Nigel Edwards, Policy Director for the NHS Confederation, described healthcare commissioning as a “poorly understood” service that had been introduced by the Department of Health in 1990 “then largely neglected”. Now, nearly 2 decades later, that same service is charged with delivering the government’s vision for world-class commissioning, which is intended to embrace:
- Improved healthcare and life expectancy
- A dramatic reduction in health inequalities
- Delivery of high-quality, evidence-based care
- Investment decisions that ensure improvements are made within the available resources
- Cooperation between PCTs to provide optimal services
“This is a big ask, and commissioners can’t do it all on their own,” he said, proposing that healthcare providers and clinicians might be able to play a greater role in commissioning than had been the case in the past. Indeed, one of the tenets of world-class commissioning is that the new-style commissioners will lead engagement with clinicians. “Most NHS reforms have looked at changing clinicians’ behaviour, but without their engagement in the process. Perhaps engagement really is on the agenda this time.”
Mr Edwards said that commissioners and providers would need to work together, with the support of a decision framework, to agree on the definition of high-quality services, to collect and publish quality performance data, challenge poor/mediocre performance, promote patient choice (e.g. home care vs outpatient care), consider competitive tendering where appropriate and establish meaningful contractual measures.
Page 2 of 11
Discussion.