The Government sets out plans to devolve commissioning responsibilities and budgets to GPs - Mundays can assist

“Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS” – a new dawn for GPs

The Government’s White Paper entitled Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS and its consultation paper Commissioning for Patients set out plans to devolve commissioning responsibilities and budgets to GPs. This is intended to build on the role of GPs as primary care practitioners, with GPs also being given the opportunity to deliver new services where this can provide better value in terms of quality and cost. The majority of the reforms are expected to come into effect in April 2012.

The Government received 6,000 responses during the consultation process and on 15 December 2010 published its report ‘Liberating the NHS: Legislative Framework and Next Steps’.  The report contains a number of changes from the proposals in the White Paper and other notable points but a lot of detail is yet to come.

52 GP consortia have become pathfinders to manage their local budgets and commission services for patients.  In total, the pathfinders involve 1860 GP practices and cover around 25% of the population.  Every GP practice will have to become part of a consortium.  A timetable has been set for the steps that must be taken in order to arrive at GP consortia being fully operational on the target date of April 2013.

At Mundays, we have a dedicated team keeping a close eye on developments so that we can tailor our services to your needs.  We can advise you on all legal aspects of:

• the arrangement between the group of GP practices forming the consortium;
• commissioning services for the consortium;
• employment issues with regard to new or existing staff;
• premises issues.

 For more information;

Ingrid Saffin, Head of Healthcare

DDI: 01932 590 535

e-mail: ingrid.saffin@mundays.co.uk

14th January 2011