General practitioners make over 9 million referrals each year, triggering many billions of pounds of expenditure. There is also significant variation in the quality and rate of referral between GPs and GP practices. As the NHS faces a prospective funding gap of £14-£20 billion and GPs take the lead for ...
Since their formation in 2012, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have already faced formidable challenges, tasked with managing substantial commissioning budgets amid increasing financial pressure. In a further development from 1 April 2015, CCGs will now also be given the option to take up more devolved powers to co-commission primary care ...
The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust are working together to assess the implementation and impact of clinical commissioning groups. Between 2012 and 2015, we are following the evolution of clinical commissioning in six case-study sites and will publish the findings annually. This first report is based on fieldwork conducted ...
A core part of the vision in the NHS five year forward view is a fundamentally different role for acute hospitals. Hospitals in England and elsewhere face significant challenges as a result of rising demand and the changing needs of the population, and they will not be able to meet ...
This paper was commissioned by The King’s Fund to inform the panel of the Inquiry into the Quality of General Practice in England. The views expressed are those of the authors and not of the panel. and General practice plays a central role in ensuring patients receive a timely and accurate diagnosis, either directly from a GP or from an appropriate specialist as a consequence of a GP referral. Failure, or delay, in correctly identifying and referring patients who need secondary care can have profound clinical consequences. ...
Since internal markets were created in the NHS, commissioners have purchased health care on behalf of patients and the public from a variety of competing providers. Commissioning was intended to drive improvements in the quality, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of services, but has so far largely failed to achieve these objectives. ...