• Home
• About Us
• Current issue
• Editor's Blog
• Events
• For Advertisers
• News
• Product News
• Product Zone
• Resources
• Subscribe For Free

Smaller CCGs “not viable”

Released 23/11/2011

The size of Clinical Commissioning Groups should not be smaller than 100,000, according to a report published by the Clinical Commissioning Coalition

The report was based upon the potential budgets of CCGs covering populations of 50,000, 100,000 and 300,000 with a running cost allowance of £25 and £30 per patient head

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) with populations less than 100,000 will not be viable but larger CCGs could delegate authority to smaller groups, according to a report by the Clinical Commissioning Coalition.

The report by the coalition, set up by the NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care, stated that a “CCG with less than approximately 100,000 population may be too small to act entirely independently with an exclusive management team and to fulfil all statutory functions”.

The report was based upon the potential budgets of CCGs covering populations of 50,000, 100,000 and 300,000 with a running cost allowance of £25 and £30 per patient head.

The Coalition stated that “to maintain a sense of localness for the clinicians forming the group, whilst having a critical mass for managing clinical and financial risk, organisations will need to have a population base of at least 100,000”. It said that smaller CCGs may be “stifled” by the running and administrative costs, but encouraged larger CCGs to delegate some responsibility to smaller groups.

“Localism, flexibility and identity are critical” so larger CCGs may want to delegate authority to sub sets within the CCG, said Julie Wood, national director of the NHS Alliance.

“This is work in progress and the paper will be refined following discussions with a number of CCG leaders… we need to look at a number of models CCGs of different sizes could use, such as incorporate delegated budgets for prescribing, community services and acute services,” she added.

A meeting of a small group of CCGs has been scheduled for the 14 December and a revised paper will be published for wider discussion, with a view to complete the work by the end of January 2012.

See more news stories like this