GPs poised to take control of £329m health budget

The new Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Committee Group—recently established as a sub-committee of the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cluster of Primary Care Trusts—has been given delegated responsibility for £329 million.

That amounts to 70 per cent of the existing £461 million NHS budget for Rotherham, covering hospital, community, ambulance and mental health services.

The remainder of the budget will stay with the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cluster and be used to commission primary care services such as GPs, public health and specialised health services. 

This arrangement will continue until the new formal arrangements for managing the NHS come into force in April 2013, subject to the passage of the Health and Social

Care Bill currently at Committee stage of the Parliamentary process.

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The new committee is made up of local GPs and NHS managers and will shortly be recruiting nurse and hospital consultant members. 

It will operate in shadow form to oversee the commissioning of services in Rotherham until formally authorised as a board in its own right in April 2013.

Dr David Tooth, the group’s chairman, said: “This move signals a significant step forward for Rotherham as decisions about local healthcare services gain greater input from local clinicians.

“However, the NHS is a very complex organisation and the GPs involved greatly value the guidance from the team at NHS Rotherham who are instrumental in steering us forward into our new role.”

The committee will meet each month with their discussions feeding into public meetings of the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cluster board.

Dates of these public meetings are available at www.rotherham.nhs.uk.