Practices in rural and suburban areas are “more likely” to be resigned to engagement with their clinical commissioning group (CCG), it is claimed.
Chair of the NHS Alliance and senior member of the Clinical Commissioning Coalition Dr Michael Dixon said practices in rural areas are used to interacting more with each other and will be more “resigned to the changes to the commissioning structures”.
As such, CCGs in rural and suburban areas should find it easier to engage with their member GP practices.
However, he said smaller practices in urban areas do not have the same “cohesion” that you find in rural practices – something he claimed could be due to the high number of salaried GPs found in urban GP surgeries.
“Practices in rural and suburban areas are more likely to be at least resigned to their membership of their CCG, if not engaged already,” said Dr Dixon.
“But practices in towns are more resistant to the idea of becoming engaged with their CCG.”
The first wave of CCG authorisation results is due out on 5 December 2012 where CCG practice engagement will be tested and measured.
