empowering practices in a commissioning landscape
primary provider
news
CSU
deadline extended
Clinical commissioning groups will be able to extend their SLAs with CSUs until April 2016, NHS England has announced. The change in policy is set out in a letter sent to CCGs by Rosamond Roughton,
NHS England’s director for commissioning development. The letter states that the overwhelming feedback from CCGs was that “the timetable
for any procurement should be sensible and not divert the focus away from the important forthcoming contracting round”. NHS England had previously said all CCGs would have to undertake formal
procurement no later than September next year. Roughton said that many CCGs have indicated they want to use the extension as an
opportunity to “review their needs and renegotiate the arrangements with their CSU”. However, she suggests that CCGs consider having these discussions with
CSUs ahead of this year’s contracting round so that CCGs and CSUs are on a “more sustainable footing” ahead of working together to drive real quality and value improvements from providers.
New regulatory approach for Monitor
Monitor is updating the regulatory framework under which it will ensure NHS foundation trusts are well run and can continue to deliver good quality services for patients in the future.
The update takes into account changes following the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and will apply to all foundation trusts from 1 October. The new framework will be used to monitor foundation trusts, assessing both how well they are governed and any potential risk to their financial sustainability. Where the framework indicates a concern, the regulator will consider whether to request additional information or launch a formal investigation into the situation at a trust and, subsequently whether to take regulatory action.
The framework will be further updated in due course to cover those independent sector providers licensed to deliver key NHS- funded services required by local commissioners from April.
CCGs favouring NHS trusts illegally
The head of a private provider claims CCGs in some parts of England are urging GPs to refer patients to NHS hospitals ahead of private providers in an attempt to keep their local trusts viable, according to Pulse.
Ramsay Healthcare’s chief executive Jill
Watts said CCGs in a “number of areas” had been prioritising NHS trusts, contravening the Health and Social Care Act, which does not allow commissioners to discriminate against certain types of providers. The BMA chair told Pulse that, if Watts’s claims were correct, the CCGs’ actions were “entirely appropriate”, but they were “on the face of it” against the law. Watts made the claims at the Westminster
Health Forum’s debate on choice and competition. In a question and answer session she said she had seen some changes since April in terms of commissioners’ attitudes, including new people “who come with their own cultural beliefs, some positive, some less positive”. She referred to “adversarial relationships” in some parts of the country, in which CCGs appeared not to want to work with private providers at all, although she said many had now changed their opinion. Delegates at the forum discussed implications around Section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act, which calls on commissioners to put contracts out to tender unless they can prove that the contracts can only be carried out by one provider and the acts provision to prevent commissioners from discriminating in favour of certain types of providers, but there is still uncertainty surrounding how this is applied in practice.
& 21,723 STATS FACTS
The number of people in England the NHS stop-smoking service has helped to quit
12 october 2013
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