GP commissioning consulting services

From Berkeley Partnership

GP commissioning is currently the hot topic in health. The Coalition’s proposals to hand NHS commissioning to GPs will be welcomed by those frustrated by the present system’s failure to deliver much needed changes to local health services.

But as a GP trying to get to grips with how GP commissioning will all work, you may be wondering:

• What will working in consortia mean for my partnership and our valued independence and autonomy?  Will I have to behave corporately?  Can I control who I go into business with?  Will other GPs start performance managing my practice?
• What is the whole job of commissioning?  Which parts will I do personally?  What management support will we need for the rest?  Who will be held accountable for what?  With my new responsibility for finance, will my patients still think I’m acting in their best interests?
• Where will my colleagues and I find time to do all that is expected of us during the transition?    Building a GP commissioning consortium will be time consuming.  Put this alongside our day jobs of seeing patients and the job of delivering QIPP savings we are being handed.  How can this all be done in parallel?

Berkeley can help you get started

Berkeley is itself an independent partnership, a team of experienced professionals providing bespoke advisory and management support services to GPs and PCTs and to independent and NHS providers.

John HigtonPartner

Berkeley has been active in NHS commissioning for over six years.  In our experience concrete change only happens with GP involvement and where there is real collaboration in a local area between GPs and their clinician colleagues in, for instance, hospitals and community nursing teams.  So conceptually it is right to give GPs a pivotal role in commissioning.  But there are undoubtedly some big challenges ahead.

• John’s profile
• Contact

We have introduced a comprehensive subscription-based support service for GPs starting to set up commissioning consortia.  We can help with:

• the set-up of a consortium – its membership, geographical coverage and rules
• the definition of how commissioning will work, what the consortium will do itself and what functions will be sourced externally
• the definition of underpinning governance and incentives arrangements
• identification and sourcing of information and supporting tools and systems.
• transition and workload planning
• leadership and skills development.
• Under our subscription model, we provide continuity of support over an extended period to make sure you get fully up and running.

What is more, as part of our service, we aim to build contacts between subscribing consortia.  Where consortia are like-minded we can promote exchanges of ideas and approaches and, potentially, the establishment of shared services.  Where consortia are adjacent geographically we can help develop and negotiate co-ordinated commissioning arrangements, thereby maximising return from acute providers’ services and co-ordinating the shift of care to community settings.

Our clients say they find us challenging, energetic and easy to work with.

If you are interested in subscribing, or would like to find out more, please contact us at gpcommissioning@berkeleypartnership.com.

Read more about Berkeley’s work in the NHS