A PENDLE GP consortium has been named as ‘commissioning pathfinders’ in the Government’s NHS overhaul.
It is expected that the Prime Minister David Cameron will put the Health and Social Care Bill, which includes plans to transfer around 60 per cent of the NHS budget to GP commissioning consortia and scrap primary care trusts, on hold for up to three months.
But the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said 220 groups of GP practices across the country had now come forward to directly commission services, including a Pendle consortium chaired by Dr Mike Ions.
Dr Ions said the Pendle GP Commissioning Consortium’s initial focus would be to continue developing a ‘virtual ward service’, in partnership with NHS East Lancashire and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, to improve patient care through collaborative working.
He said the consortium was planning a major improvement to diabetic patient care, a diabetic nurse specialist service based in the community, which could launch this year.
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