1. NICE and the NHS Constitution: a partial reprieve for clinical commissioners?

    11 Aug 2011

    An interesting thing occurred when Andrew Lansley announced that NICE would no longer recommend which drugs and treatments should and should not be offered on the NHS – NICE became, well nice.

    The alternative, new local commissioners having to make these decisions at a local level looked inequitable and unworkable.  After all, NICE has been a lightening conductor for public anxiety around rationing, and has taken difficult and highly technical decisions out of the hands of local commissioners.

    Following a recommendation from the...

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  2. Public health specialists shouldn't wait to be asked

    27 Jul 2011
    Comments: 1

    Finally there is more detail on how public health will be delivered in the future. The Government’s response to its consultation on the Public Health White Paper: 'Healthy Lives, Healthy People', goes some way to addressing the key gaps that we and others have identified around commissioning, but other issues are still far from resolved.

    Right now public health specialists work closely with commissioners to conduct needs assessments and evaluate service outcomes.  They...

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  3. GP commissioning: plus ça change?

    19 Apr 2011
    Comments: 1

    Is it time to move beyond commissioning? This was the question posed by Dr Judith Smith  to the panel in a debate session at the Nuffield Trust’s annual Health Strategy Summit 2011.  The question arose from a cool appraisal of the research evidence on 20 years’ experience of NHS commissioning in England – evidence which points to very limited impact by commissioners on secondary care, and a struggle to make the shift to community-based care that has been long exhorted in policy.

    Judith highlighted some persistent problems with...

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