New NHS GP Bosses
Friday 20th January 2012
GMB PUBLISHES DETAILS OF 266
CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUP “PATHFINDERS” POISED TO TAKE OVER THE
NHS AMID GROWING OPPOSITION TO HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
BILL
Government must release “risk
register” showing dangers of its NHS reorganisation says GMB,
the union for NHS workers in hospitals, ambulance
services and the community
GMB today publishes details of 266 GP-led
Clinical Commissioning Group “pathfinders” poised to take over the
NHS in England (see Notes 1 and 2 in the document at the bottom of
this release).
The Government’s Health and Social Care
Bill is next due in the House of Lords on 8th February
when it moves to report stage, which will involve further
line-by-line examination. It will then move to third reading, the
final chance for peers to debate and amend the Bill, before being
sent back to the Commons.
The Government has already handed over
£29bn of the £106bn NHS budget to the emerging Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs) (see Note 3), even though the Health
and Social Care Bill which puts them on a statutory footing has not
received parliamentary approval. The CCGs will be responsible for
commissioning the majority of health services direct from
providers, instead of having Primary Care Trusts coordinate local
provision.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wants the
majority of Primary Care Trusts to delegate their budgets and
commissioning duties to the CCGs by April 2012 (see Note 4). He
expects the CCGs officially to replace Primary Care Trusts by April
2013.
Mr Lansley is meanwhile refusing to release
the Department of Health’s “risk register” assessing the dangers of
his NHS reorganisation, despite an order from the Information
Commissioner to do so (see Note 5).
The Royal College of Nursing and Royal
College of Midwives yesterday joined GMB and other healthcare
unions in calling for the Health and Social Care Bill to be
scrapped.
Rehana Azam GMB National Officer for the
NHS said: “It’s the height of irresponsibility to put these
untried and untested new organisations in charge of a quarter of
the NHS budget without proper parliamentary approval. GPs are being
put in an awkward position. Control of the purse-strings gives them
more opportunity to make money off the NHS. If GP groups can buy
their own services, or increase their takings by scrimping on
patient care, there is enormous potential for conflicts of
interest.
More and more NHS unions are
telling the Government to call off its reforms, but Andrew Lansley
plainly isn’t listening. Our members are deeply concerned about the
impact of private-sector competition on existing NHS services. And
what will happen to NHS patients when hospitals are allowed to use
almost half their beds and theatre time for private
patients?
The Department of Health has done
its own assessment of the risks posed by the Health and Social Care
Bill, but won’t release the findings. What has the Health Secretary
got to hide?”
Ends
Contact: Rehana Azam, GMB
National Officer on 07841 181656 or GMB Press Office on 07921
289880 or 07974 251823.
Notes to editors:
1. Profiles
of emerging
Clinical Commissioning Groups by region
Please note that Clinical Commissioning
Groups are still in development, therefore details are subject to
change. In December 2010, the Department of Health initiated “a
rolling programme” of CCG “pathfinders” to “enable emerging
consortia to get more rapidly involved in current commissioning
decisions”. The pathfinders “will not necessarily evolve” into
CCGs, “since GP practices will be able to adjust arrangements
before applying to the NHS Commissioning Board for establishment”.
(See DH, Liberating the NHS: Legislative framework and next
steps, 15 December 2010).
2012-13 is meant to be the final year of
transition to the new commissioning system, with the NHS
Commissioning Board beginning to authorise CCGs to take on full
budgetary responsibilities. CCGs that are not judged to be ready by
April 2013 will be authorised only in part or in “shadow form”,
with continued commissioning support from the Board.
Source for the below profiles: Department
of Health, “Pathfinder clinical commissioning groups by Strategic
Health Authority clusters”.
Contact details for each CCG pathfinder,
where available, are shown separately in Note 2 in the attached
document below.
Profiles of emerging Clinical Commissioning Groups by
region
2.
See attached document
above.
3.
“Individual PCTs have
been delegating elements of their commissioning funds to
emerging
CCGs and Pathfinders during 2011/12 as part
of their development. In the first half of 2011-12,
about £29 billion had been delegated to
CCGs to spend on providing services for patients.” See
http://mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/2012/01/16/nhs-to-get-100m-cash-injection-to-improve-services/
4.
“Some PCTs have already delegated budgets and
commissioning responsibilities to pathfinders, and I hope the
majority will by next April. By October next year, the NHS
Commissioning Board will begin to establish full clinical
commissioning groups, delegating budgets to them directly. And by
April 2013, commissioning groups will start to take statutory
responsibility in their own right.” Pulse,
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/newsarticle-content/-/article_display_list/12365234/time-to-move-forward-insists-lansley-as-new-wave-of-gp-pathfinders-unveiled.
5.
“Ministers have refused to release their own assessment of
the risks to the health service from the reforms, despite an order
from the information commissioner to do so. In a letter from the
health minister Lord Howe to Labour's Lady Thornton, the government
said an appeal on that decision would only be heard in mid-April
and any hearing would take "two weeks". This effectively means any
ministerial admission about the bill's consequences will not be
released until after it is law”. Guardian,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/18/nhs-reforms-hit-front-line.