Local NHS leaders have insisted there is “no battle of Oxford”, following HSJ’s revelation that the clinical commissioning group’s ambitious plans had been delayed amid provider concerns.
A joint letter from Oxfordshire CCG, Oxford Health Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals Trust has instead emphasised the joint working going on between the three organisations.
It comes after HSJ revealed that the CCG’s plan to tender three large capitated outcomes-based contracts had stalled after the trusts raised objections. The plans, which would have seen contracts in place by summer 2014, are now under review. If implemented, they would cover adult mental health, maternity, and older people’s services.
The letter disputed claims by former Number 10 adviser Paul Corrigan that providers did not take notice of commissioners until they set out concrete plans for radical change.
It said: “We do not subscribe to that adversarial model − there is no ‘battle of Oxford’ − instead we are already committed to a high level of collaborative service innovation.”
It claimed the local disagreement over outcomes based contracts was a “rather technical discussion” about the best way of achieving improved outcomes and was not “the only show in town”.
The Oxfordshire leaders emphasised their collective effort to reshape emergency care, and to introduce seven day community mental health services that are more closely linked to primary care and charity services.
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