GP-led commissioning groups set to control £65 billion

The word on the street even among cabinet ministers is that while they support the ethos for the need to reform. The £20billion that needs to be saved in the next 3 years with the reforms in tandem and even without the reforms will see the NHS in the doldrums with people waiting for ops etc getting even worse.

Rightly or wrongly the electorate will link directly to the new reform bill just about election time. Currently, only 25% of voters in a UGOV pole are gainst the reforms but the fears are that this will rise come 2015.

Anyway, the impact of the 2billion to be spent on public health projects by local government will not directly reach pharmacies as there will be charities, local resident action groups bidding for that money too and local councillors will be giving it direct to who gives them the vote. As an ex councillor my experience is that a lot of small grants will go to groups that give their support to the local councillors.

It is a bit of a mess for strategic public health planning across the board.

It is slightly disingenuous to talk about GP led commissioning. It took a lot to move Government and DH language to talk about clinically led commissioning. If we aren't prepared to use the language how we can we possibly expect others to. Pharmacy has a critical role to play in helping to deliver QIPP and maybe we should be looking at how we build the business case to demonstrate value. The work on the Isle Of Wight demonstrating the value of intervention in inhaler use in reducing hospital admissions should be built into a case that LPCs could take to CCGs. I know some will push back but if we get some to proceed that helps to strengthen the business case further and the evidence base for pharmacy.
Using the Atlas of Variation should be seen as a tool to demonstrate where populations are being failed and where pharmacy could make a real difference to outcomes.
There is clearly no new money but there is a drive to shift care from expensive secondary care. We need to vie for those areas where medicines optimisation will reduce admissions and deliver savings.
I agree that some of the Public Health money will go to voluntary groups and those within communities. However, pharmacy is at the heart of a lot of communities and we should be looking at how we could act as a hub for the public and show how we can support local councillors with their electorate.

Ash, you make a number of good points above and, while I agree that it was welcome to see GP commissioning renamed Clinical Commissioning, what we're saying here is that these commissioning groups will by default be led by GPs. No one says this is necessarily a bad idea - it's just that we have to accept that GPs will lead these groups.