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Policy guidance and toolkits
World class commissioning of primary care and community services
These documents are for commissioners and form part of a series of supporting guides to help primary care trusts become world class commissioners of primary care and community services. They have been co-produced by NHS East of England, NHS Primary Care Commissioning (NHS PCC), and the Department of Health.
- Improving quality in primary care
- Primary care and community services: improving GP services
- Primary care and community services: improving GP access and responsiveness
- Primary care and community services: improving dental access, quality and oral health
- World class commissioning: improving pharmaceutical services
- Primary care and community services: improving eye health services
New standard contracts
Monthly bulletins on the development of new standard contracts for NHS mental health, community, and ambulance services, to be introduced from April 2009.
Care and resource utilisation: ensuring appropriateness of care
These documents for commissioners using practice-based commissioning (PBC) and primary care trusts (PCTs), describe techniques to help identify areas where services can be redesigned, thereby freeing up resources to focus on clinically needy patients. Care and resource utilisation (CRU) is all about giving the patient the right treatment in the right place at the right time.
World class commissioning to improve the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities
Recent inquiries have demonstrated the health inequalities faced by people with learning disabilities, and the reasonable adjustments needed to overcome them. This is a practical guide to support commissioners to meet the needs of this group, and ensure they are fulfilling their duty to promote equality.
Improving outcomes in children and young people with cancer: guidance on commissioning services for young people
Letter containing the document Key messages for commissioners of cancer services for teenagers and young adults, developed by the National Cancer Action Team (with advice and support from an expert working group) at the request of the Children and Young People Improving Outcomes Guidance (CYPIOG) Advisory Group to support the implementation of National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance, Improving outcomes for children and young people with cancer.
Diabetes commissioning toolkit
The diabetes commissioning toolkit provides advice for all commissioners of diabetes services. It describes how to carry out a health needs assessment for a local diabetes population and provides a generic specification for diabetes care, signposting recognised quality markers and suggesting key outcomes for the service.
Commissioning and managing screening programmes in the NHS in England
This paper is intended to be used as a best practice guide. Its aim is to clarify the existing roles and responsibilities in the NHS, in order to ensure that consistent and appropriate commissioning and performance management arrangements for screening programmes are in place.
Who Pays? Establishing the responsible commissioner
This document, published in September 2007, set out a framework for establishing responsibility for commissioning an individual's care within the NHS, in particular determining who pays for a patient’s care.
Fitness for Purpose
The Fitness for Purpose programme ran from May 2006 to March 2007 and was designed to assess PCT capabilities.
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