Clinical commissioning groups serve too many masters, finds study

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are accountable to too many masters with potentially competing agendas, say authors of a study in the online journal BMJ Open.1

CCGs, which replaced primary care trusts in April this year and which are responsible for 65% of the NHS budget in England, were set up in part to boost the accountability of those responsible for commissioning care for patients. They also have greater autonomy than their predecessor organisations, but this independence depends in large part on their relations with the bodies that oversee them.

To understand the accountability …