Shadow Commissioning Board goes live
pharmafile | October 31, 2011 | News story | Medical Communications | Commissioning Board, DH, NHS
The NHS Commissioning Board, the new central and powerful committee that will co-ordinate the health service in England, has been launched today.
The Board has begun life in ‘shadow’ form known as the NHS Commissioning Board Authority. This is necessary because it cannot take full control until the government’s Health and Social Care Bill is signed into law.
The Board Authority will operate as independent body from October 2012, on its way to complete control in April 2013.
The Board Authority will oversee the clinical commissioning groups, which themselves are currently in a shadow form.
These groups – made up of GPs and other health professionals – are set to replace the current management system of PCTs and strategic health authorities, and together with the Board take on responsibility for the majority of the NHS budget.
Many clinical commissioning groups may not be ready to take control in the next few years, and the Board will have to continue to rely on PCT clusters in the interim.
Sir David Nicholson, current NHS chief executive will remain in the top role, changing his title to chief executive of the Commissioning Board. He said: “Building this new system over the next two years, while delivering for our patients, increasing productivity and improving the quality of care, is a major challenge.
“But I firmly believe that what we are trying to achieve – a stronger, more innovative and more coherent commissioning system – will be critical to sustaining the NHS in years to come.”
The Board’s most immediate task will be to help clinical commissioning groups to find £20 billion in NHS savings by 2015, whilst also trying to negotiate a new management system.
But Sir David said the NHS must look to the long-term: “If people are making short-term cuts, it’s because they haven’t planned,” he said.
“They’d better learn quickly that they have to plan for a future which does not have huge amounts of growth for the NHS.”
A ‘strong central grip’
The head of the King’s Fund think tank, Professor Chris Ham commented: “During this transition over the next few years, there’ll be a strong central grip by David Nicholson and the Board.
“They will need to manage the very real risks that finances might get out of control and waiting times might get longer.”
Ham said that it would be ‘some time’ before the new clinical commissioning groups are ready and able to take on the responsibility, but he was unsure whether the Board would be prepared to let go and hand over the power to the clinical commissioning groups.
Ben Adams
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