If you think you have waited too long for your appointment, contact the number on the letter that you received to ask why? If you are still not satisfied you can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) office at the Hospital that you are waiting to attend. The telephone number should be on the Hospital website or you can telephone the Hospital and ask to be put through to the PALS office.

The NHS is a fabulous institution, you can help to keep it and improve it by;

• Taking responsibility for your own health and well-being
• Only making appointments if you intend to keep them
• Follow the pathway of care that you have agreed with your Clinician
• If you have been prescribed medication - Complete the course
• Treat staff and other patients with respect and courtesy
• Provide positive and negative feedback - It helps improve services

• Commissioning is the planning and purchasing of NHS services to meet the health needs of a local population.
• This includes elective Hospital care, rehabilitation care, urgent and emergency care, community health services and mental health and learning disability.
• Prior to April 2013, Primary Care Trusts were responsible for commissioning services, it is now the responsibility of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s).
• The new NHS Commissioning Board (NCB) will allocate budgets to CCG’s and hold them accountable using quality standards and patient outcomes.
• The NHS Commissioning Board has now been renamed NHS England, however still has the same remit as previously.

• Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) are the cornerstone of the new health system.
• There are over 8,000 General Practitioner (GP) practices in England and they are all are now part of a CCG.
• There are 211 CCG’s in total.

In 2015/16 Clinical Commissioning Groups will commission the majority of health services, including;

• Emergency care
• Elective Hospital care
• Community and mental health services
• They will be responsible for a budget of more than £65 billion of public money
• Approximately 60% of the total NHS budget