The first meetings have already taken place to start planning the way forward for GP commissioning in Blackburn with Darwen under the government’s White Paper reforms.
GPs from a number of practices across the borough met in July to discuss options including a Blackburn with Darwen GP consortia and a broader consortia across East Lancashire, with Care Trust Plus or independent companies to provide supporting services.
Unlike many other parts of the country, Blackburn with Darwen already has a single GP ‘consortium’ - the Transformational Commissioning Board – which is made up of both clinicians and social care professionals with a strong influence over the commissioning committee and accountability for the spending decisions that are made.
It launched in April this year out of the former Practice Based Commissioning Board to manage transformation of the whole care pathway, rather than just community services, and includes five executive directors of the Care Trust Plus who each focus on one of the borough’s five neighbourhoods.
Because of this, we feel we are in a strong position to respond to the White Paper changes. While it is impossible to predict exactly how the future GP commissioning model will look in Blackburn with Darwen, a single GP consortium is one option and if GPs decide that is the way forward then we have a successful and effective model in place that could be adopted.
The joint working arrangements that have been agreed between the Council and Care Trust Plus through the single integrated management team (reported in this newsletter) are in line with government thinking and provide us with a possible infrastructure to support GP commissioning.
The LMC is arranging further meetings for continued discussions around this agenda over the coming months.
Dr Malcolm Ridgway
Medical Director
