Calls for fair and transparent commissioning
Proposals to merge health and social care regulation and develop a regulatory framework that will support health reform have prompted the Company Chemists' Association to call for the framework to recognise pharmacy's contribution to the provision of new and remodelled services and ensure a level playing field is created and maintained.
The Department of Health’s consultation on the future regulation
of health and adult social care in England proposes that the Healthcare
Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection merge and, in
addition, take on the role of the Mental Health Act Commission (PJ, 2
December 2006, p656). The new commission will be responsible for ensuring
the safety and quality of all publicly and privately funded health and
adult social care, and for assessing performance. It will share responsibility
for promoting choice and competition with the Office of Fair Trading
and will help strategic health authorities monitor primary care trusts.
“The regulator must ensure that the commissioning process is fair
and transparent and that it does not favour existing providers,” says
the CCA. It adds that the way regulation is applied and interpreted should
be proportionate and based on a desire to enable, rather than restrict,
innovation. The new regulator should seek to reduce the burden of registration
for providers and remove inconsistency and uncertainty, it says.
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