Dixon urges consortia to work quickly

The NHS Alliance is advising GP commissioners and primary care trusts to get consortia up and running as soon as possible.

Dr Mike Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance, whose membership includes PCT managers and clinicians, said time was of the essence.

He told a meeting of 180 GPs at a practice-based commissioning event: “As with flying we will need many flying hours before we are confident and prepared to go solo in 2013.”

The NHS white paper, ‘Liberating the NHS’ recently set out plans to abolish strategic health authorities and primary care trusts and to transfer their secondary care commissioning roles to new GP consortia.

Further guidance on commissioning issued by the Department of Health this week said shadow consortia could form this year and that the changes should be complete by 2013. Over the same time period, all trusts will be expected to become foundation trusts.

Dr Dixon said it was also important for GPs and commissioners to support each other and to get the details of future commissioning arrangements right while avoiding too much bureaucracy.

He added: “The new set up will work best where there are arrangements for strong partnerships between GP consortia and PCTs.

"These will be invaluable in terms of sharing their skills and expertise in how to cope to cope with budgets, as well as statutory and other management responsibilities."

The Alliance chair said it was also important to ensure proper governance, particularly where GP commissioning decisions might advantage providing practices and fuel self interest.

However, he also said the system needed to be fluid to allow future GP consortia to carry out “make or buy” decisions to bring about rapid redesign and to move services from secondary to primary care.

Dr Dixon added: “The processes of procurement must be streamlined so that the right decisions can be made and implemented quickly. Otherwise, clinicians and patients will walk away.”

A poll by doctors’ website Doctors.net.uk found that 82% of doctors do not feel adequately equipped to deliver the government’s commissioning agenda.