Commissioning NHS primary care dental services: meeting the NHS operating framework objectives

High level guidance launched by Ann Keen, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health Services, on 16 January 2008, sets out the Government's commitment to maintaining and expanding NHS dental services and the expectations on the NHS to deliver year on year increases in access, as set out in the NHS Operating Framework 2008/09 and to provide more detail on what this means for commissioners and providers in developing dental services locally, including managing the 2009 transition.

(Published January 2008, 5 pages)

The Future of Care Funding: Time for a change

Bringing together the findings from the Caring Choices events and website, this report looks at possible solutions to the problem of funding long-term care. Caring Choices, a coalition of 15 organisations from across the long-term care system, aimed to raise awareness and encourage debate, as well as generate and test out ideas among those with experience and understanding of the current system. Highlighting key areas of agreement and issues around the design of a new system, this report is an important step towards reform.

(Published January 2008, 36 pages)

Practice Based Commissioning GP practice survey

This is the second quarterly practice survey, covering a sample of practices from each primary care trust (PCT). The aims of the survey are to get feedback from practices on their perception of the support offered by their PCT and on the clinical and financial engagement of practices with PBC. The survey is part of a group of indicators that will be assessed together to give a picture of PBC implementation.

(Updated February 2008)

Best practice guidance for joint working between the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry

The purpose of this guidance is to; Encourage NHS organisations and staff to consider joint working as a realistic option for the delivery of high-quality healthcare; Inform and advise NHS staff of their main responsibilities when entering into joint working arrangements with the pharmaceutical industry.

(Published February 2008, 12 pages)

New release of NICE commissioning tools

In December 2007 NICE released an updated version (version 2) of the commissioning tools, offering enhanced functionality to end users, and updating the five commissioning tools published last year for activity, population and Payment by Results data.

This new version of the commissioning tools enables; commissioners within strategic health authorities to log in and view data at primary care trust level; general practices within a commissioning group to give other practices in their group permission to view their data, and to model commissioning intentions for the group; 3-year planning of commissioning intentions; the creation of user notes to accompany any commissioning model created; printing of selected tables, or all tables, within a commissioning tool together with any associated user notes.

Over December 2007 and January 2008 six new tools have been released.

Mental Health Act Commission's Biennial Report; Risks, Rights, Recovery

It is reported that patients deemed to be a threat to themselves or others are being denied hospital beds while commissioners squabble over money. The Mental Health Act Commission has found practitioners are being told to delay sectioning people with urgent mental health needs until primary care trusts ascertain who should pay for their treatment. The problem is being blamed on high bed occupancy levels and the need for PCTs to balance budgets. The Mental Health Act Commission claims that this has encouraged PCTs not to detain patients who have travelled from other areas until the home PCT has agreed to pay. The commission's biennial report Risks, Rights, Recovery criticises the practice as "improper".

(Published 2008, 290 pages)

Implementing practice based commissioning

In its recent report, the Audit Commission described the current state of implementation of practice based commissioning (Putting Commissioning in to Practice). The commission defined such commissioning as a way of managing financial risk as well as a means of improving services and use of resources. Under practice based commissioning, primary care trusts devolve indicative budgets to practices (practices do not receive the actual money, but operate within an agreed budget held and administered by the primary care trust) to give them financial incentives to manage referrals, and to commission and redesign services to make them more convenient, appropriate, and cost effective.

BMJ, 2007;335:1168

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Learning from investigations

The Healthcare Commission has urged boards of all NHS trusts in England to heed the lessons from serious failings in healthcare services. It has highlighted the importance of good leadership, effective management and systematic use of information. The Learning from investigations report reviewed all investigations undertaken by the Commission under its statutory powers from August 2004 to April 2007. Investigations are undertaken where patient safety is seriously at risk. The report highlights clear common trends in the investigations the Commission has undertaken: poor leadership; ineffective management; inadequate teamwork with staff feeling unable to communicate problems; and a lack of clarity about who was responsible for what across the trust.

(Published 2008, 64 pages)

Working Across Boundaries for 18 weeks and beyond – registration now live

The NHS Institute is holding a learning and sharing event (registration link) for NHS organisations to work across professional boundaries to reduce delays. The day will showcase No Delays improvement work implemented by Ambassador Sites and Learning Networks and include sessions on a number of NHS Institute tools. A key focus of the day will be team development and facilitated action planning, so priority of attendance will be given to those coming in teams.

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Podcast of the Commissioner Volume 3 Issue 2

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