BMJ  2007;335:1168 (8 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39414.429838.BE

Editorials

Implementing practice based commissioning

Is happening slowly but not necessarily surely

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In its recent report, the Audit Commission described the current state of implementation of practice based commissioning.1 The commission defined such commissioning as a way of managing financial risk as well as a means of improving services and use of resources. Under practice based commissioning, primary care trusts devolve indicative budgets to practices (practices do not receive the actual money, but operate within an agreed budget held and administered by the primary care trust) to give them financial incentives to manage referrals, and to commission and redesign services to make them more convenient, appropriate, and cost effective.

Practice based commissioning has been a central part of the government’s current reforms of the National Health Service (NHS) since April 2005, when interested practices were first entitled to an indicative budget. Any assessment of progress must therefore be of interest in assessing the fate of government health policy overall.

The Audit Commission . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Q Lewis, senior associate1, Nicholas Mays, professor of health policy2, Natasha Curry, research fellow1, Ruth Robertson, researcher1

1 King’s Fund, London W1G 0AN, 2 Health Services Research Unit, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

rlewis@kingsfund.org.uk


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Practice based commissioning in the UK
Stephen Gillam and Richard Q Lewis
BMJ 2009 338: b832. [Extract] [Full Text]

Practice based commissioning: applying the research evidence
Judith Smith, Jennifer Dixon, Nicholas Mays, Hugh McLeod, Nick Goodwin, Siobhan McClelland, Richard Lewis, and Sally Wyke
BMJ 2005 331: 1397-1399. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Gillam, S., Lewis, R. Q (2009). Practice based commissioning in the UK. BMJ 338: b832-b832 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

An attempt at a synthesis
Steven Ford
bmj.com, 9 Dec 2007 [Full text]
Re: An attempt at a synthesis
L Sam Lewis
bmj.com, 11 Dec 2007 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ