The second group of GPs in the East Midlands who will take the lead in the Government’s plans for commissioning health services were announced today.
Five groups of GP practices in the East Midlands are among the 89 from across England that have been selected to join the first wave of practices chosen to trail blaze the reforms which were announced in December. The practices, known as pathfinders, will take on commissioning responsibilities as part of the Government’s plans set out in the NHS White Paper Liberating the NHS: Equity and Excellence. The groups of GPs will work together to manage their local budgets and commission services for patients directly with other NHS colleagues and local authorities.
This latest wave of pathfinders will test the new commissioning arrangements to ensure they are working well before arrangements that are more formal come into place. By being in charge of the decisions that affect their patients, the pathfinders will be able to commission high quality care that is tailored to the specific needs of their patients and the wider community. The programme has been designed around local decision making and reduced bureaucracy to lead to more effective outcomes for patients and more efficient use of services for the NHS.
The additional five GP pathfinders that were announced today are based in Nottingham, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire and already provide healthcare to nearly 850,000people in these areas. This increases the amount of the East Midlands population covered by pathfinder arrangements to 1,641,000 seeing additional clinical leadership, good partnership working with local authorities, and innovative ways of engaging with patients and the local community.
The two waves of pathfinders are just the start to this on-going programme of development with further groups being announced later this year. All pathfinders and prospective pathfinders will continue to receive support from NHS East Midlands in their development to enable as many consortia as possible to test out the new arrangements before GP consortia take on statutory responsibilities from April 2013.
Wendy Saviour, Director of Commissioning Development at NHS East Midlands said:
“It is excellent news that we are in the position in the East Midlands of having five more consortia joining with the pathfinder programme - with more expected to follow in the coming months. The eight consortia provide a great start to GP commissioning in the region demonstrating their readiness and enthusiasm to grasp the opportunities presented by the NHS White Paper and be innovative in their approach to providing NHS services in the future for the benefits of their patients.”
GP pathfinders will also be supported by the National Clinical Commissioning Network, the National Leadership Council and national primary care bodies.
