Practice based commissioning (PbC) is freeing up clinicians to deliver the best care for their patients, says the NHS Alliance.
But it won’t make all the improvements it can, unless everyone from GPs to hospital staff get involved, they say.
This week the Alliance has brought out a new publication: “Practice based commissioning: early wins, early lessons” that hopes to demonstrate how frontline clinicians and trusts can use PbC to save time and NHS money.
NHS Alliance Chairman Dr Michael Dixon, says that PbC has delivered many NHS improvements but it is still to be universally implemented.
He says PCTs need to devolve commissioning to the frontline, and GP practices need to grasp the opportunities that this will bring.
Equally important, he adds, is accurate and timely data and management support, whether provided by the PCT or brought in by the PbC group.
“Through PbC, the government has set in train what may prove to be the most significant culture shift in the history of the NHS,” he says.
“It’s not just GPs who have to be up for it. Hospital consultants and managers at all levels – in SHAs and hospitals as well as PCTs – have to give it their backing too.
“PbC has liberated frontline clinicians to deliver the best for their patients. Their best is very good indeed. We want more of it.”
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