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New commissioning support packs for GPs

Cardiac rehabilitation is a crucial element in the care of people who have heart disease and helps them to live longer and enjoy a better quality of life.

 The first of a new series of support packs is for cardiac rehabilitation services. The pack includes:

1. A service specification that sets out how to design services to improve patient outcomes

2. A costing tool that commissioners can use to determine how much money could be saved by implementing the service

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4. Procurement advice and templates designed to slash the amount of time spent on administration and reduce the need for GP commissioners to rely on external management support

The cardiac pack is ready to be used by commissioners, whether they are existing PCTs or shadow GP Commissioning Consortia. The commissioning packs are not mandatory so can be adapted to suit local needs and will free up Consortia to focus on outcomes and services for patients.

All commissioning packs will provide GPs with a set of tools and templates to use when designing and buying services for their patients.

Further packs will be developed and launched next year for dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) services. It is expected that the packs will evolve over time as GP commissioners have more control in designing services and clarity on their support needs.

"This year’s National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation shows a 4% increase in the number of heart patients in England receiving cardiac rehabilitation from 38% to 42%", said Mike Knapton, GP and Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation. "This commissioning pack is a welcome step forward in our goal of ensuring every heart patient who would benefit from cardiac rehabilitation is given the chance to receive it. We urge all commissioners of care in England to use this pack and ensure referral to cardiac rehabilitation is a routine part of treating heart patients, giving them the chance to live longer and better quality lives."

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley confirmed that the pack has been designed with GPs and will evolve: "we want to make sure that GPs are supported too, and that they do not have to wade through layers of bureaucracy when designing services. Detailed information about this issue can be found small claims. This is the first of a series of packs that aim to reduce the time GP Consortia will spend on procurement and to easily demonstrate how they can design services that will give patients the best outcomes and use money effectively."

The British Heart Foundation and NHS Improvement have also launched a patient information pack to make patients aware of what they should expect from a good cardiac rehabilitation service.

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