CCGs vary widely in how well they deliver healthcare, new measure shows

New indicators show that primary care clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England vary widely in their ability to deliver healthcare equitably to rich and poor people.

Some inner city areas, such as Tower Hamlets in east London, have done well on the new measure, while others, such as central Manchester, did poorly. A large gap could also be seen in affluent areas, with south Cheshire performing relatively badly while east Surrey did well.

The Centre for Health Economics at York University devised the measure, which has now been adopted by the NHS in England as one of the tools it uses to assess and improve the performance of CCGs.

To make the comparison the York team needed a marker that enabled CCGs to be compared on how well they delivered healthcare to their populations, regardless of how large the underlying discrepancies in overall health were. This was …