Linton Health Centre News

An important date for the NHS: reorganisation on a huge scale with  many challenges ahead. Yet, at a local level, be assured that we are still here to provide  the best possible medical care for our practice population.  

GP Commissioning is at the forefront of the NHS changes. Clinical Commissioning  Groups (CCGs) have been formed to manage the NHS budget and, as a practice, we fall  within the large Cambridgeshire & Peterborough CCG. The CCG is split into eight Local  Commissioning Groups (LCGs) to provide a local perspective to the decision making.

CATCH – Cambridgeshire Association to Commission Health - is the largest LCG with  a population of around 220,000 and to which we belong. It has 28 member practices which  work together in smaller locality groups on commissioning issues, all feeding their ideas  back to CATCH. We work with other rural practices, with similar issues and challenges:  Sawston, Comberton, Harston, Bourn, Melbourn and three Royston practices.

The challenges for CCGs in managing the budgets are huge, especially in  Cambridgeshire where we are seen as a ‘healthy and wealthy’ population and therefore  the funding has been lower than elsewhere in the country. This filters down to practice  level and in the reorganisation a practice like ours is set to lose over £200,000 in annual  funding in the coming years. All practices will have to really engage in the commissioning  process in order to make best use of the funds available and to maintain the level of  service to patients. See the CATCH video at www.catchcambs.nhs.uk for more information  on commissioning.

Last updated on 27 May 2013.