FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – PREVIOUS EMBARGOED HAS BEEN LIFTED :- Doctors leading NHS reform changes report coercion and bullying in way organisations are being set up
Released: 29/11/2011
A new survey shows that clinical leaders in the new organisations set to take charge of the NHS in England report experiencing coercion or bullying over how their organisations are established. 60% of respondents to the question ‘Do you believe that your CCG is being coerced or bullied to alter how you are setting it up, in ways that conflict with what you feel would benefit your local population?’ voted yes. There are now 257 of these emerging ‘pathfinder’ clinical commissioning groups; this survey (held last week) got 67 responses.
The survey by the Clinical Commissioning Coalition was run in response to repeated reports from the emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) of coercion or bullying over how they are being established. CCGs are led by and involve local NHS clinicians.
The coercion or bullying seems to be coming from the existing NHS management infrastructure of clustered primary care trusts and strategic health authorities; bodies that will be abolished in April 2013 when CCGs take responsibility.
The finding is consistent with a previous Clinical Commissioning Coalition survey this September (1), which found that the majority of CCG respondents felt restricted in the commissioning support offer available to them (46%); a third had not been fully involved in shaping their commissioning support offer; and 30% of respondents described their PCT cluster as “performance-managing & centralist”.
Dr Michael Dixon GP, a leader of the Clinical Commissioning Coalition, said: “We’ve heard too many reports that CCGs are being told by the current system managers that they must be created in specific ways. That is not what the old system is meant to be doing: it should be supporting CCG development, as last week’s NHS Operating Framework made fully clear.
“In a significant number of cases, this seems to cross the line into unacceptable pressure in the form of bullying or coercion.”
Dr Charles Alessi GP, a leader of the Clinical Commissioning Coalition, added: "We are deeply concerned about these top-down directives - examples of which have been coming to us over several weeks now. We are calling upon Ministers and Sir David Nicholson to stipulate the need for a completely different tone from PCT and SHA clusters if they really do want the vision of a transformed NHS to become reality.”
Ends.
Notes to editors:
1. This online survey was carried out in the last week of November 2011, with a total of 67 respondents from the 257 CCG pathfinders.
2. The Clinical Commissioning Coalition was created by NHS Alliance and the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) – the two main representative organisations of primary care and clinical commissioning.
3. For more information, please email pressoffice@nhsalliance.org or call 07772 756674.