More clarity is needed over nature of the NHS Commissioning Board’s (NHS CB) relationship with its hosted Commissioning Support Units (CSUs), clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have claimed.
Dr Amit Bhargava, Accountable Officer at Crawley CCG, has voiced concern that a lack of guidance as to who holds CSUs to account will “cause problems in the future”.
“We need to be clear about how distant the NHS CB plans to be from the CSUs,” he said.
“We need to find local clinical based solutions for the problems we have but we need to understand right from the beginning what the risks are and the level of grip that will be administered from the centre.
“It will mean more problems along the road if it is not clarified now how holds NHS CB hosted CSUs to account now.”
In response to Dr Bhargava’s concerns, a spokesperson from the NHS CB said CCGs will be responsible for holding NHS CB hosted CSUs to account over delivering on their promises as laid out in their service level agreements – or contracts.
However, the NHS CB will be responsible for the governance and statutory framework of the CSUs until March 2016.
The spokesperson also confirmed more guidance on this area is expected during Autumn 2012.
