Pharmacists should be part of a team of local experts to commission health services, the NHS Alliance has said – but only if led by doctors driven by incentives.

The commissioning taskforces, labelled Local Clinical Partnerships (LCPs), are the key recommendation of a report suggesting a replacement for practice-based commissioning (PBC) by the NHS Alliance and Nuffield Trust. Under the proposals LCPs would have budgets to commission local health services and would be mostly “doctor-led”, with “active involvement” from pharmacists and nurses.

The rethink of primary care commissioning was necessary after the lack of consistency in services created by PBC, report co-author and NHS Alliance director of PBC Julie Wood said.

However, “organisational and personal incentives” would be needed to ensure GPs engage with the scheme, Ms Wood added.

When asked why GPs should lead rather than be part of a team, a spokeswoman for the NHS Alliance said there was “strong evidence” that commissioning worked best when doctors played a central role, but that the emphasis of the report was on involving a “diverse range of professionals”.