“For you I have to risk it all
Cause the writing’s on the wall”
Sam Smith – Writing’s on the Wall
The Health Service Journal (HSJ) reports that NHS England is currently working on a new commissioning strategy. Unsurprisingly references are made to an accountable care system and the role of CCGs within it. Place-based commissioning also gets a name-check. The Kings Fund will be pleased.
No-one of course is talking directly about the demise of the purchaser/provider split let alone the death of the internal market. NHS England appears careful stating they will “redefine the boundary between commissioning and provision” and there seems to be an insistence that “there will still be a payer function.”
Nonetheless the usual suspects are all there in black and white; outcomes based contracts, capitated budgets, population health.
The devil as always is in the detail and that doesn’t appear to be coming until the New Year. Given that this is billed as a new commissioning strategy it will be interesting to see the response from CCGs. It will be intriguing to see the reaction from Commissioning Support Units.
Whatever the detail, I can’t see the current Vanguards kicking up much of a fuss. A great deal of that which is signposted in the HSJ article seems to me to be just part of the Vanguards’ day job. The new world that beckons for others is for them the new normal.
It’s time to dust down those Population Health Management strategies, people. Or at least give it a good Google (other search engines are available) to see what is in store.
Spectre (noun) – something widely feared as a possible unpleasant or dangerous occurrence.
Fearful of the future?
Can’t be as scary as the present.
