Supporting strategic commissioning: Collaborative working between CCGs and AHSNs
As the commissioning landscape evolves and moves towards more collaborative models of designing and delivering care across wider footprints, the role of the clinical commissioner is developing into an increasingly strategic one.
In their continuing efforts to achieve the best for patients, CCGs are tapping in to the support and expertise that AHSN can offer, including their additional analytical capacity, expertise at sharing best practice at scale and links with industry that can lead to the development and implementation of new innovative approaches.
Case studies in Supporting strategic commissioning that demonstrate the impact that collaboration between CCGs and AHSNs can have include:
- the reduction of anti-coagulation treatment costs by £1 million while at the same time improving patient outcomes in Newcastle;
- a six day fall in referral admission times for patients with acquired brain injuries in London; and
- the development of a platform able to predict when a patient would present at a hospital if no intervention took place in Somerset.
The report recommends that the most successful collaborations between CCGs and AHSNs will be ones that focus on a specific issue rather than on providing more general support. It also states that projects that focus on delivery at scale, will be the most impactful making AHSNs natural partners for commissioners working as a part of a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.
