NHS Commissioning Board
In the Government’s response to the White Paper, ‘Legislative Framework and Next Steps’, they state that the role of the NHS Commissioning Board will be to hold GP consortia to account for the outcomes they achieve and for their financial performance, with the power to intervene only if consortia fail or are likely to fail to discharge their statutory functions. The NHS Commissioning Board will have a duty to ensure a comprehensive system of consortia is in place from April 2013. It will be responsible for considering applications from prospective consortia and authorising them where legal requirements are met. The Board will provide national leadership for driving up the quality of care, promoting patient and public involvement and choice, and reducing health inequalities. It will also allocate and account for financial resources for commissioning and support effective financial risk management.
The NHS Commissioning Board will have responsibility for commissioning primary care including GP, pharmacy, dental and ophthalmic services; to ensure that primary care providers meet their contractual obligations; and to hold national lists of practitioners that are registered and fit to provide primary care services. They will also commission national and regional specialised services. The list of specialised services commissioned by the Board will evolve over time, and, by default, GP consortia will commission all other services.
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