Norman Lamb: ...for PCTs to manage their budgets and make decisions about how best to meet the health needs of their local population. From 2013-14, the allocation of resources to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) will be a matter for the NHS Commissioning Board. As set out in the mandate to the Board, the Government expects the principle of ensuring equal access for equal need to be at the heart of...
Daniel Poulter: There is no evidence that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and commissioning support units (CSUs) have decided to buy services from outside the national health service. The expectation is that the majority of primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) staff will be transferred into the new system and be mainly employed by NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB), CCGs and CSUs....
Anna Soubry: Indeed it is. That is one of the great joys of the CCGs. As other Ministers have alluded to, we are putting commissioning decisions into the hands of the people who know best—the health professionals. When they exercise their commissioning responsibilities, we urge them to ensure, as I am sure they will, that they deliver the very best services for the people they serve.
Earl Howe: The Government will ensure that the NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB) and its clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) make provisions for infection prevention and control. The recently published NHS Mandate sets out key areas where the Government expect the NHSCB to make improvements in NHS services. It makes robust reference to reducing the risk to patients from healthcare associated infections....
Anna Soubry: The NHS Commissioning Board has strongly committed to transparency as an organisation. Its focus will be on commissioning care and supporting clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to improve outcomes for patients. As a commissioner of local services, the NHS Commissioning Board will work with partners in CCGs and local authorities to produce a joint health and wellbeing strategy to show how...
Baroness Greengross: ...from Government is coming down to the clinical commissioning groups and the health and well-being boards at a local level, and if that money can be ring-fenced and secured at that level, the CCGs or the boards can mix the funding and solve that crisis by using it in the best way available to meet the needs of this population. It cannot be difficult to achieve that. Maybe the Minister will...
Baroness Thornton: ...should be a 50% reduction in amputations by, say, 2018? How does he believe that could be delivered? It seems to me that surely an effort from everyone, from the national Commissioning Board to CCGs and from the Government to clinicians on the ground, is what is needed. Of course there is also a huge role for patients learning to manage their own condition and becoming, as my noble friend...
Anna Soubry: Information on remuneration for general practitioners working for emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) is not held centrally. Once established, the governing body of a CCG will have the responsibility to determine remuneration, fees and allowances payable to employees of the CCG and to those that provide services to the CCG. Each CCG will have a limit on administrative spending...
Norman Lamb: ...publish these plans on their website no later than 30 September 2012. These plans are agreed based on local priorities and will be publicly available. From 2013-14, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will assume responsibility for agreeing these plans with local partners. It will be for CCGs to make these decisions in line with the requirements of the mandate from the Government to the...
Baroness Williams of Crosby: ...figures for weekends and holidays are of course much worse than they are for the normal level of health service provision? Does he agree that it is well worth looking at bringing into the work of CCGs the contribution that can be made by ancillary services to medicine, in order to move towards a 24/7 primary care service?
Liz Kendall: ...a problem with 150 primary care trusts, yet in future there will be 212 clinical commissioning groups. Those can, of course, draw on expertise in local councils, but the authorisation process for CCGs does not even mention learning disabilities as an area in which competence is required. If this is such an urgent national imperative for the Government, will the Minister explain why that is...
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: ...the commissioning plans of clinical commissioning groups should have to be signed off by health and well-being boards in order to draw the commissioning plans of both the local authority and the CCGs together into one cohesive approach? Would the noble Earl be willing to consider this issue again? I am concerned that the authorisation process for CCGs does not mention learning disabilities...
Anna Soubry: From 1 April 2013, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will work with local authorities and other local partners in Health and Wellbeing Boards, to ensure the heeds of local people are appropriately assessed, and that those needs are captured in a health and wellbeing strategy, which will inform commissioning plans, for securing services to meet those needs. CCGs will have a statutory...
Earl Howe: From 1 April 2013, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), including those in the North West, will be responsible for commissioning emergency ambulance and patient transport services for their local populations. Currently, primary care trusts are responsible for the commissioning of these services. Management of the process for identifying the best providers is a matter for the local National...
Baroness Northover: ...would ensure better care-putting a question mark over that. I emphasise that the department has published good practice guidance and will be publishing further guidance and working with the CCGs and local authorities that are commissioning suitable care through joint improvement teams. As I mentioned, the involvement of families and advocates in what happens to family members is absolutely...
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what his policy is on whether accountable officers in clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are able to undertake work outside the CCG; (2) what code of conduct governs the behaviour of an accountable officer of a clinical commissioning group.
Anna Soubry: Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are set to take on responsibility for commissioning infertility services from April 2013, with the NHS Commissioning Board providing oversight and support. This will include the provision of supportive commissioning resources for CCGs. We will continue to expect that those involved in commissioning infertility treatment services are fully aware of the...
Earl Howe: ...example, two-thirds of PCT clusters have chosen adult community hearing assessment services as a priority area in which to extend patient choice of provider. We expect that work to continue when CCGs take over.
Jeremy Hunt: Today I am informing the House that the NHS Commissioning Board has announced the allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for 2013-14 of £63.4 billion. The board’s overriding objective is to improve outcomes for patients and to reduce health inequalities. Together with ensuring stability during transition, this has driven the decisions the board has taken in the approach to...
Anna Soubry: The Department has no plans to issue guidance to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) on collaboration with local authorities in providing integrated smoking cessation interventions. However, the Department would expect that local authorities and CCGs would collaborate with the local Stop Smoking Service teams and commissioners to deliver integrated smoking cessation interventions based on...
