• 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

CCG’s are made up of doctors, nurses and other professionals who use their training and knowledge of the local health needs to plan and buy services for their patients from any service provider who meets NHS standards and costs. The providers could be NHS Hospitals, private Hospitals or voluntary organisations. This means; Better care for patients which is designed with knowledge of local services, commissioned in response to their needs.

NHS England is a National organisation which has area teams. Their role is to deliver the Department of Health’s ambitions for the NHS working with commissioners and providers of services. They will directly commission;

• GP Practices
• Dentists
• Pharmacists
• Optometrists
• Specialised services such as HIV care or heart transplants