Elective recovery
and NHS England will run a patient-facing communications campaign to ensure patients know about their right to choose and how to exercise it, and clinicians are prompted to offer choice at the point of referral (including to the independent sector) through e-RS.
l DHSC, with NHS England support, will update the NHS Choice Framework to help patients understand the choices available to them in the NHS.
l NHS England is working to establish a baseline position for how many patients are currently accessing choice.2
The report further identifies a range of barriers to maximising the role of the independent sector in reducing the backlog and the actions that need to be taken. Key action points, outlined in the report, include: l Subject to the Parliamentary timetable, the Department of Health and Social Care aims to revise patient choice legislation and establish the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) in 2023.
l Revised patient choice legislation will ensure that provider qualification criteria are used more consistently and make clear the circumstances under which NHS England and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) must offer a contract to providers that meet the qualification criteria. The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England will work with the system to ensure that it is prepared for legislative change and that it is implemented successfully.
l NHS England will update NHS Choice guidance in line with revised regulations on patient choice in 2023. This guidance will be published on the NHS England Choice guidance page at: https://www.england.nhs. uk/personalisedcare/choice/
l The PSR will be a new regulatory regime to govern the procurement of healthcare
services in England. This is intended to improve avenues for providers who are suitably qualified to deliver clinical services.
l To further assure decisions around patient choice and procurement under the PSR, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England intend to introduce an independent panel which will review compliance with patient choice and PSR requirements. This panel will, when required, provide advice to commissioners to assist with improving compliance where necessary. 2
The Taskforce also outlined the practical steps required to enable more sustainable collaboration between the NHS and the independent sector, including: l NHS England is developing the NHS Digital Staff Passport, which will go live in December 2023. This will enable a verified virtual record of a doctor’s training and occupational health records – reducing the administrative burden of moving between providers.
l The ‘doctors in training’ group comprising the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), NHS England and the Royal Colleges will continue to ensure barriers to junior doctor movement are minimised, especially where independent service providers undertake a significant volume of NHS work.
l IHPN will publish an evaluation of apprenticeship schemes across independent service providers.
l IHPN will conduct a benchmarking exercise to measure how much training is being undertaken in the sector and to publish this information with a view to demonstrating the ongoing progress which is being made. This will then be conducted annually.
l NHS England will build on the experience of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) by developing a mechanism to track, monitor and evaluate independent sector’s impact on the long-term NHS capacity landscape.
l NHS England will publish best practice case studies on NHS and independent sector collaboration to boost outpatient, diagnostic and treatment provision, to inform planning for future years.
With regards to ‘going further’, actions being taken include: l NHS England is publishing regular data on independent sector use as part of a single data set.
l NHS England is internally tracking year- on-year changes in activity across all specialisms, including cancer, as part of work in NHS systems and independent sector providers to prioritise the commissioning and delivery of a more diverse range of services.
l NHS England is updating guidance to providers to include a validated referral source in the weekly management information collection.2
Roll out of community diagnostic centres Alongside the publication of the Elective Recovery Taskforce Implementation Plan, the Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, announced the launch of thirteen new CDCs – including eight independently run CDCs – across the country, as part of its plans to use the independent sector to cut NHS waiting lists. Five of these independent sector-led CDCs will
operate in the South West of England, with permanent sites fully opening in 2024 in Redruth, Bristol, Torbay, Yeovil and Weston-super-Mare. Additional diagnostic testing capacity is already being rolled out in the region via the use of mobile diagnostic facilities, to provide additional diagnostic services while these sites are constructed. Three others will open in Southend, Northampton and South Birmingham, with the former commencing activity from November, and the latter two from December. These independently run CDCs aim to help to make it easier for patients to receive checks closer to home and will remain free at the point of use for patients. This adds to the four CDCs run by the independent sector that are already operational in Brighton, North Solihull, Oxford and Salford. Five more NHS-run centres will also open
across the country, delivering on the ambition to open up to 160 across the country by 2025, backed by £2.3 billion. These will be in Hornchurch, Skegness, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent. Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve
Barclay, said: “We must use every available resource to deliver life-saving checks to ease pressure on the NHS. By making use of the
22
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I September 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
