What is Commissioning?
Our public and stakeholder engagement has shown that a great majority of local people do not know what
Commissioning is or what a Primary Care Trust (also known as PCT) does.
Yet
Commissioning is a key function of the NHS and
PCTs are important organisations which spend about 80% of the NHS’s annual budget of £100 billion. In Coventry, we are responsible for more than £550m of the total NHS budget. NHS Coventry exists to make sure that healthcare services are provided for our local population. Put bluntly, the core role of commissioners is to buy services for their population, although it has always been more than this.
The
Department of Health describes our role:
- To be the advocate for patients and communities—securing a range of appropriate high-quality healthcare services for people in need,
- To be the caretaker of tax-payers money—this brings a requirement to secure best value in the use of resources.
Commissioners are required to be advocates for health and wellbeing, encouraging and enabling individuals, families and communities to take greater and shared responsibility for staying healthy and managing their health and conditions. This means understanding better the what affects health, effective engagement and enablement of people and populations and strengthened partnership working to improve health and wellbeing.
- Commissioning
Process by which the health needs of the local population are identified. Priorities for investment are set and appropriate services are purchased and evaluated. Primary Care Trusts do not provide all of the healthcare services needed by the local population, they buy-in or commission services from other provider organisations. Typically this includes local hospitals. - Department of Health
The Government body that is responsible for delivering the highest quality of health and social care within England. - PCT
Primary Care Trust. A PCT is responsible for commissioning the most appropriate services for the local community.