I am really pleased that we have appointed such a good team of clinical commissioners who are working in partnership with our lead commissioners to review and improve the services to meet the health needs of our communities in eastern and coastal Kent.
Working with various groups of clinicians and managers across the health economy, they are linking in locally to our practice based commissioning groups and then working with practices to implement agreed pathways of care.
They are a clinical voice who can be contacted by any clinician lead in your area with ideas about improving services and how we commission changes.
In this way, through clinical commissioning, we will be able to show that our PCT is clinically led and able to ensure that we commission effective and safe services, making it easier for clinicians to deliver the right services for their patients.
Our World Class Commissioning programme was launched in July 2008 to dramatically transform the way we commission health and care services in eastern and coastal Kent. We are working hard to improve the way we commission health and care services to deliver better health, better care and better value for everyone, radically reducing health inequalities.
To do this, local knowledge is crucial to making sure that the correct healthcare services are commissioned in the right place for the right people. But up until now, feeding this information into the decision making process for the new services has not been easy – a gap in our commissioning process which had to change. An innovative solution is in place which is connecting your views on the needs of our communities from across eastern and coastal Kent with those responsible for healthcare provision.
We now have 11 doctors appointed as clinical commissioners. By concentrating on just a single clinical area right across the region, a more accurate picture is being built up of what is needed and where.
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Clinical commissioners act as a bridge between the lead commissioners and the lead clinician of your practice based commissioning cluster.
In the past, the lead clinician from each cluster has fed the needs of an area directly into the Strategic Commissioning Plan via the clinical strategy meeting.
The weakness of this process was its lack of consistency by not looking at the entire picture of healthcare needs across the area.
Clinical commissioners are now working closely with the lead clinicians, relevant organisations, patients and the public to identify local needs and inequalities to influence and shape services for their own specialities.
This new way of working brings a more structured approach, allowing the clinical commissioners to build up a picture of how their specialist area operates right across eastern and coastal Kent and how best to implement any new services exactly where they are needed.
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Now that time and resources are being put into developing new services when and where they are needed, it is crucial that everyone has an input into the commissioning process.
The role of the clusters is vital in feeding back your views through each clinical lead.
By taking an active part in your cluster you can directly influence what healthcare provision is made and where. After all, it is you who are in direct contact with patients and as such, have a first hand knowledge of any shortfalls in service.
Once your views have been received, your cluster’s lead clinician will then raise them with the clinical commissioner. If you want to know more about the process, the clinical commissioners will come along to a cluster meeting and explain all.
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