STRUCTURE: Primary care trusts in the NHS Tees cluster are expecting to create commissioning support organisations with others in the North East, or in North Yorkshire.
A board paper said the “original intention” was to create a commissioning support unit to support the Tees clinical commissioning groups, with similar CSUs being developed in the other clusters within the North East. However, the board paper notes that the situation has now changed.
It stated: “It was acknowledged that these cluster-based CSUs would need to collaborate on the provision of some services. Advice from a regional and national level has now indicated that CSUs will need to be on a larger scale than individual PCT clusters of the size we have in the North East.”
“This is based on the need to achieve significant economies of scale (in comparison to current arrangements) due to the tight restrictions on running costs for CCGs. We are currently exploring the potential for designing a larger scale CSU,” the paper added.
“This might involve working with some or all of the other clusters in the former North East SHA area or a solution involving North Yorkshire or a combination of both approaches,” it said.
Source date
September 2011
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