Finalising the Outcome Based Commissioning process!

14th September 2015- 18th September 2015

This week at the CCG I have continued working on CQUINS (Commissioning for Quality and Innovation) for our mental health provider; CWP. I have been reporting to CWP our feedback for each CQUIN’s evidence that was submitted. I have definitely improved my medical knowledge working at the CCG- I’m grateful I took Biology at A-level as it has certainly helped! I am thoroughly enjoying working in the healthcare sector as it is such a dynamic environment and there is plenty to constantly learn about which I enjoy!

I have also been looking at potential quality standards, outcomes and CQUINs we can incorporate into the Ophthalmology contracts. These are designed to drive measurable quality improvements within the service.

As well as this, I've also been working on finalising the outcome based commissioning process with Amy; the other placement student at the CCG. We have designed a sample process of how a project lead would go about following an outcome based commissioning process starting from identifying the problems in the current system to deciding upon the outcomes and indicators (often the most ambiguous step), redesigning services and how to measure the outcomes' progress. It is a detailed process using examples and best practice. We are now putting together a project plan to proposed time scales. 

I am really enjoying this task as it requires in depth research as it is a relatively new approach with few other CCGs currently performing this way.  With increasing demographic pressures, rising expectations, a widening gap between demand and resources and outdated and over stretched delivery systems, this outcome based approach has the potential to reduce costs and improve the quality of services considerably. Therefore, by outlining a thorough, clear process will help to anticipate any problems when commissioning this way and be most effective. Amy and I are meeting with a few members of staff at the CCG next week to show the process we have come up with so far.

Also this week, I had a meeting with Brenda Smith, the director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living at Cheshire East Council. Brenda was very helpful in giving me an overview of her role in the council and her relationship to the CCG, specifically the Caring Together programme. It was very interesting to see the link and understand her vital roles in strategic and individual commissioning.

From contracts to website designing!

7th September 2015- 11th September 2015

I’ve been involved in a wide variety of projects this week at the CCG; some of which are listed below.

At the start of the week, along with my manager Andrew, I completed my Personal Development Review (PDR). All members of staff working for the NHS are required to complete a PDR every year in order to review their progress within the organization. I have noted my personal objectives I hope to achieve over the next twelve months, what I believe to be are my most important aims and tasks for the next year and my action plan for achieving these.

I have also been completing a few of the contacts for the Ophthalmology service; liaising with the Providers about the policies and documents we require and any they would like to be included in the contract.

On Wednesday I attended my first Clinical Quality and Performance Committee meeting. This meeting reviews all of the quality aspects of the local healthcare services that are being delivered. Dashboards are presented to highlight performance in terms of A&E attendance, FFT performance, and IAPT referrals. I understood most things that were discussed (which shows I am definitely making progress understanding the complex and diverse areas of the CCG!). 

On Thursday I attended a workshop in Middlewich along with my manager Andrew, the other placement student Amy and her manager Jane as they were giving presentations on Outcome Based Commissioning and Service Improvement to the lead practice nurses from Eastern and South Cheshire. This was extremely productive and helped me to understand the nurses’ opinions of implementing outcome based commissioning and quality improvement and how these changes affect their jobs first hand.

I have also been updating the CCG website creating an area for the Practice Nurses which has definitely challenged and improved my website designing skills!

NHS Expo Event!

31st August 2015- 4th September 2015

As the week was short due to the bank holiday, the week went even faster than usual- so apologies for the late blog post!

At the beginning of the week, I began writing my first contract for the Ophthalmology service. Before I started my placement, I had no idea how complex NHS contracts were so I definitely learnt a lot doing this and enjoyed doing it. 

On Thursday I had the privilege of attending the NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo 2015/16 event at Manchester Central Convention Centre. It was a big event over two days with around 5000 people attending each day. There were various exhibition stands, stimulating workshops in the ‘pop-up universities’ and key note speeches about Innovation and the Future NHS. I gained a great deal of knowledge and understanding at the workshops and enjoyed learning about the progress we are making and the new systems in place to defragment processes and ultimately improve quality. The NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens gave an interesting talk and Jeremy Hunt MP, The Secretary of State For Health challenged the NHS to ensure all patients were able to access their full medical records online by 2018, accompanied by a commitment to a review of data security.

Ultimately the event was a celebration of innovation and improvement in the NHS, to further integrate our efforts and spread adoption of the best new ideas. It was great to see how optimistic, ambitious and driven everyone was in improving the NHS. NHS England Chair Sir Malcom Grant closed the event highlighting the importance of innovation in the NHS and said innovation is a catalyst to productivity. He said “Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful industry – industries come up on the wave of innovation, but if they fail to continue innovating then they fail."

On Friday I attended my first Locality Meeting, which is a meeting between the GPs and Practice Managers in Eastern Cheshire and the CCG in order for us to provide the GPs with updates on work streams. This gave me a good overview of all the latest projects and the chance to meet the GPs. 

A month at the CCG!

24th August- 28th August 2015

I have officially worked one month at the CCG and it has flown by!

At the beginning of the week the Communications and Public Engagement team asked me to write an article for the local newspapers on behalf of a GP with the focus on high blood pressure, which will be published as part of the weekly 'Health Matters' column. The article was written in time for 'Know Your Numbers week!', a campaign designed to raise awareness of high blood pressure whereby participating pharmacies around England are giving free blood pressure tests. This was enjoyable to write as I learnt a great deal of new knowledge on blood pressure and it has also helped improve my writing skills! I am keen to get more involved with the Communications and Engagement team as my degree at university is in Business and Marketing so I am particularly interested to understand how the CCG promotes the organisation and engages with the public.

I’ve also been reviewing further CQUIN evidence reports for Quarter 1 (Commissioning for Quality and Innovation), though this time for CWP, our leading mental health provider.  I also attended my first ECT Service Quality Review meeting which is a monthly meeting involving members of the Trust updating the CCG on the quality of the services and any other quality concerns.

In addition to this, I have started working on Contracts which are a large responsibility of the CCG. The CCG is responsible for hundreds of contracts within Eastern Cheshire. It is extremely interesting to see how hospitals and other providers are paid through tariffs or block contracts which are similar to a price list for each procedure carried out by the hospital. I have been given the responsibility of assisting Sally who works in the contracts team with drawing up 8 contracts for an ophthalmology service.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first month at the CCG and I am continuously understanding the crucial role that the CCG plays within the local health economy.