5 April 2011
All local NHS commissioning consortiums should have both a finance director and a chief executive, MPs have recommended.
A report from the Commons health select committee, published today, puts forward a series of changes it said should be included in the Health Bill to improve commissioning structures.
The MPs note that, while the Bill makes clear that each consortium must have an ‘accountable officer’, it does not make the same stipulation for a chief finance officer.
‘The committee believes that good governance demands that a public authority has an identified chief executive and an identified finance director, and that both officials are full members of the board,’ the report states.
Other recommendations included widening the membership of commissioning boards to include social care, nursing, hospital medicine and public health representatives. The local authority should also nominate an elected member, whether a councillor or directly elected mayor, to sit on the board. Each board should be chaired by an independent person nominated by the NHS National Commissioning Board and should be required to meet in public and publish their papers.
The name ‘GP consortia’ was misleading, the MPs said. Instead, the bodies should be referred to as ‘NHS commissioning authorities’.
Health committee chair Stephen Dorrell said: ‘We believe it is crucial to get the reform of NHS commissioning right if the service is to confront the massive financial challenge it now faces.
‘Our proposals are designed to ensure that NHS commissioning involves all stakeholders – GPs, certainly, but also nurses, hospital doctors, and representatives of social care and local communities. We believe this broadening of the base for commissioning is vital if we are to achieve the changes that are necessary to allow the NHS to deliver properly co-ordinated health care.’
Yesterday, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the government would take advantage of the upcoming ‘natural break’ in the legislative timetable to listen to the concerns people had about his health reforms.
He said amendments would be brought forward to address specific concerns about competition, the involvement of the private sector and accountability.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today said that the coalition would listen to ‘legitimate’ concerns about the Bill, and said it could be changed substantially.
