Agenda item

NHS England will do an overview of their commissioning role with a focus on Primary Care.

8.1   David Sturgeon, Head of Primary care, South London, gave his presentation on ‘Commissioning Primary care’ and the chair invited questions.

8.2  A member asked about potential conflicts around ‘local enhanced services’ and the Head of Primary care said that these have been delegated to the CCG and local authority. He explained that the provision will now need to go through the ‘any qualified provider’ commissioning process when they are ‘re-provided’. He gave smoking services as an example and  suggested that the council or the CCG will  probably want to re-provide,  and in these circumstances then the council or the CCG might  want to consider if those service would be better delivered by ‘any qualified provider’ (the voluntary or private sector) rather than a doctor’s surgery . A member commented this would mean the transfer of local resources to Any Qualified Provider.

8.3  An audience member commented that he tried to get some help for a 93 year old man and raised a complaint via email 7 weeks ago with the NHS Commissioning Board; however he only got an email saying this will be followed up and that is it so far. The Head of Primary care indicated that there is a backlog of 174 complaints and contacts - some of which go back to contractors and take time to resolve. He assured the committee that they are trying to clear the backlog and offered to take details and follow up individual issues.

8.4  A member of the audience asked if the service is accountable to the Secretary of State and remarked that the recent restructure of Health Services seems to have decimated adequate oversight by managers. The Head of Primary care explained that the NHS Commissioning Board is not accountable to the Secretary of State but does have a mandate from the Secretary of State and they are now consulting on the delivery of services.