COMMISSIONING XXXX
Thirty-two CCGs – one voice
GP Dr Marc Rowland, who chairs Lewisham CCG, has just been appointed chair of the London Clinical Commissioning Council too, which represents all 32 CCGs in the capital. NHE spoke to him to find out his plans in the role.
L
ondon’s clinical commissioning groups are going in the same direction – but at different speeds.
That’s the conclusion of Dr Marc Rowland, who on 1 October took over as chair of the London Clinical Commissioning Council (LCCC).
Dr Rowland, already chair of the Lewisham CCG, noted the huge diversity among London’s 32 boroughs and thus the different challenges faced by the various CCGs.
The LCCC’s role is a co-ordinating one, taking in the views of the individual CCGs and reflecting them back to each other and to NHS England, and acting as a single point of contact and – where appropriate – as a single voice.
For example, on the day NHE spoke to Dr Rowland, he had been at the launch of the London Health Commission’s report, ‘Better Health for London’, with Boris Johnson and Lord Darzi.
The LCCC published its own statement on the proposals, welcoming the “practical steps” and “clear aspirations” in that far-reaching report into public health measures on behalf of all the
London CCGs – each of which is also free to act on its own and issue its own response.
The CCGs’ longer-term responses and actions following that report will be a key focus for the LCCC in the coming years.
Projects
Other recent and ongoing work programmes tackled by the LCCC have included an ‘acuity project’ looking into the four-hour A&E target across London and better planning for winter 2014-15; improving collaborative commissioning across contracts with providers; reviewing the London levies; enhancing the relationship between the LCCC and London Clinical Senate; and working even more closely with NHS England’s London team, the mayor’s office and London Councils.
One of the key projects has been general practice development. The LCCC provided project managers to groups of GP practices that were considering federating together, four of which were ultimately chosen. Two of these potential federations are large (more than 20 practices each) and two are medium-
sized of fewer than 10 practices each. The Open University is analysing the outcomes of these projects.
Dr Clare Gerada, clinical chair of the Primary Care Transformation Programme for the London region, and immediate past chair of the Royal College of GPs, has said that GP federations are the “first real step to integration”.
It is an important issue for Dr Rowland too, who told us: “My predecessor [Howard Freeman] has done a lot of work in helping to facilitate that and co-ordinating information with Peter Kohn, director of the Office of London CCGs.”
Kohn gave NHE an update on that work, saying that once all four federations are up and running, they will “take on a life of their own”, with one of the projects having finished, one almost finished, and two having made changes during the federating process and so still have work to do.
The Office of London CCGs ran a workshop on 22 October for GPs and practice staff working on federation, updating each other on progress, successes and barriers.
Kohn said: “We also looked further to the future and asked ‘how do you win a contract the second time around?’”
Co-commissioning and conflicts
Dr Rowland is also interested in the development of CCG co-commissioning of primary care with NHS England, with
38 | national health executive Nov/Dec 14
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