NHS Hastings and Rother has today published its first ‘assurance’ report for World Class Commissioning (WCC), a ground-breaking health programme designed to deliver significant benefits for local people.
WCC takes best practice from around the world to help Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), such as NHS Hastings and Rother, match health and care services more closely to local needs, now and in the future.
It helps PCTs work with local partners (such as local authorities, GPs and hospitals), as well as the public more widely, to understand these needs and to improve services for local people.
This will result in better quality of care, improved health and well-being and a reduction in health inequalities.
Where we stand
Today’s assurance report follows assessment of NHS Hastings and Rother’s progress over the first year of working on this programme.
It reviews NHS Hastings and Rother’s performance in three key areas: its progress on addressing local health priorities, its commissioning capabilities and the effectiveness of its management arrangements.
Because this is such an ambitious programme, PCTs are not expected to score highly in this first year.
In common with other PCTs across the country, therefore, NHS Hastings and Rother has received an initial assessment of progress, accompanied by detailed guidance and recommendations on areas it must address to help it evolve into a world class organisation.
Report findings
The report acknowledges that NHS Hastings and Rother is engaged in a wide variety of initiatives and programmes, from the older people’s strategy through to healthy living initiatives targeting young families.
It recommends that NHS Hastings and Rother simplify its strategy, prioritising its initiatives to focus on the most important issues (e.g. quality).
We are excited by the challenge identified of implementing a strong strategic investment plan to address the significant and varying health needs of the local population.
There is a need to translate plans, which are rooted in the comprehensive assessments of local needs, into actions and to ensure that levels of investment are high enough to address health needs in the most deprived areas.
Mike Wood, Chief Executive, NHS Hastings and Rother said:
“We welcome this report and the recommendations it contains.
World Class Commissioning will deliver significant benefits for our community over the next few years.
For this reason, whilst we are pleased that this first year’s report recognises our progress, we are very interested in the recommendations on other areas we can work on to help us continue developing.
It is this insight that will help us continue to deliver the best possible health and care services for the people in our community.”
The full assurance report for NHS Hastings and Rother is available at:
NHS Hastings and Rother WCC Assurance Report
