If you’re a new Health minister in a new coalition government then the first thing you do is reorganise the Health Service. During the transition period there is a point where nothing really functions and no-one know who’s responsible and the person that you needed to talk to has moved, and no-one knows what their telephone number is. In short there is chaos. It takes a while to sort out….
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) formally came into being in April this year and their responsibility is to commission services, or some of them at least, those which aren’t national, or GPs or regional specialisms. The underlying motivation for the creation of CCGs is that GPs know best and should play a major role in making decisions. There are 3 CCGs in Manchester - North, Central and South. Most people think that in a couple of years there will only be one as there’s not enough money to support 3 separate administrations, even though much of their function is carried out by a jointly employed core staff.
Much of the back office function (procurement, monitoring, it support, market management) is carried out by Greater Manchester Commissioning Support Unit (GMCSU). GMCSU is due to be floated off as an independent organisation by 2016 at which time it is predicted that the big private organisations will float in.
One of the other big changes is the creation of the Manchester Health and Wellbeing Board (which the Chief Executive of MACC sits on as a representative for the Voluntary and Community Sector). This is supposed to be where all the major players in health and wellbeing in Manchester get together and decide the best way to keep us all healthy and well. There’s also a Greater Manchester version. The work of the Board is informed by the work of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) team which gathers evidence, makes recommendations and then tries to encourage people to take notice of them.
By no means finally Public Health Commissioning has moved from the Health Service to Manchester City Council.
King's Fund alternative guide to the new NHS in England
Watch and listen to the brand new animation, which gives a whistle-stop tour of where the NHS is now – how the new organisations work and fit together – and explains that their new system is as much a product of politics and circumstance as design.
Links
Clinical Commissioning Groups
Manchester Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy
Manchester Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
Greater Manchester Commissioning Support Unit