Commissioning report published by pharmacy forum
The Health Policy Forum, a new think tank formed through a collaboration of key community pharmacy bodies and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, published its first report “Making
commissioning effective in the reformed NHS in England” this week.
The HPF aims to maximise opportunities for the views of community pharmacy
to be heard at the highest levels of government and the health policy
sector. Its main purpose is to commission work designed to inform debate
among pharmacy organisations and the wider policy-making community. The
founding organisations — the Company Chemists’ Association,
the National Pharmacy Association, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee as well as the Society — believe that ineffective commissioning
will mean that the pharmacy profession’s potential to improve health
outcomes is not realised because of limited commissioning of enhanced
services.
Georgina Craig, HPF steering group member, commented: “In common
with many other stakeholders, the national pharmacy bodies share the
frustration that NHS reform has not resulted in more radical service
redesign in primary care. We hope that through the HPF pharmacy can engage
in debate about key policies that will influence developments in the
NHS.”
The research, conducted by the Health Service Management Centre at the
University of Birmingham and the King’s Fund, identifies four elements
that are necessary for effective commissioning and suggests actions that
primary care trusts can take to develop successful commissioning policy
and practice (see Panel).
Effective commissioning
The report identifies the following immediate priorities for PCTs:
• Identify need and demand — develop
a clear strategy for the assessment of both need and demand for
a set of services that
encompass a wide range of service provision
• Shape the market — develop a transparent procurement framework
and agree local rules for competition management in the commissioning
of care
• Hold the market to account — develop a clear plan for how
the performance of providers will be reviewed and how the PCT will
act on results
• Hold commissioners to account — develop new mechanisms
to engage the public and patients in the commissioning agenda for
the purposes of greater public accountability |
“Transparent and inclusive commissioning arrangements must be put
in place — at
PCT level and within practice-based commissioning — to ensure a
level playing field among providers, thereby holding out the best chance
for services to be provided in the best interests of patients,” the
report states.
If reconfigured PCTs and practice-based commissioning do not deliver
the expected financial control and service change within the NHS the
Government is likely to look for other, more radical, ways to do so,
the report suggests. These could include a partial or full contracting
out of the PCT commissioning function to commercial companies, developing
a foundation trust model for PCTs, direct elections to the boards of
PCTs and transferring health commissioning to local authorities. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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