Linnet Macintyre, Disability Consultant, reflects on her experiences as a personal health budget holder and the processes involved in managing a package of care.
The Nuffield Trust, in partnership with the Department of Health, hosted a seminar focusing on the role of personal health budgets in the development of commissioning.
As the health service moves towards the roll-out of personal health budgets, patients will take a more active role in shaping and ultimately commissioning their own services. This seminar looked at how patients acting as individual commissioners might work together with clinical commissioners planning for services for local populations.
This seminar brought together GPs, clinical commissioners and managers to:
- Explore the relationship between clinical evidence and personal choice;
- Consider how personal health budgets can fit within the commissioning cycle;
- Identify where clinical commissioners see opportunities for adding value through personal health budgets.
We were delighted to welcome speakers including:
- Dr Alison Austin, Head of Personal Health Budgets Team, Policy Unit, Department of Health, on myth-busting around personal health budgets;
- Linnet Macintyre, Disability Consultant, on her experiences as a personal health budget holder;
- Dr Greg Rogers, GP, NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent, gave the GP perspective on clinical evidence versus personal choice based on his experience of the Kent Personal Health Budgets Pilot;
- Georgina Walton, former Project Manager, Kent Personal Health Budgets Pilot, on the experience of the Kent pilot across continuing health care, mental health, end of life care and maternity services.
The event was chaired by Dr Benedict Rumbold, Fellow in Health Policy at the Nuffield Trust.
The second seminar in the series will focus on where personal health budgets will fit in the new commissioning landscape and will be held on 23 May 2012.
