EFFECTIVE GP COMMISSIONING—ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ATTITUDES SUNIL GUPTA Radcliffe Publishing 2011 PB, 152, £21.99, 978-1846195204
Sunil Gupta clearly understands the breadth of learning needs in order to progress effective clinical commissioning. The addition, at the back of the book of negotiating skill together with a summary of the Nolan Principles of public life, is helpful, as is the section on leading meetings
Although this book is published while the outcome of ‘the pause’ in the Health Bill is uncertain, the NHS will need to adopt a new approach to the challenges of an aging population, increases in long-term conditions, and changing public expectations, and this book provides some useful stepping stones to progress this change. Public involvement and patient engagement is a fundamental subject and is alluded to, but this will necessarily evolve and change over the forthcoming months.
Clinical commissioning, working with patients, public, and local communities will be the catalyst of that change and creating some building blocks for both doctors in training and established practitioners is needed. While the excitement and challenge of clinical commissioning is difficult to convey in a book, this provides a useful guide to the issues and topics discussed and makes a good read on a train journey or equivalent. The Centre for Commissioning has undertaken over 20 foundation workshops. A simple pre-workshop questionnaire of those attending showed that most wanted to be more involved in commissioning, but expressed real anxiety about where to start. A straw poll of GPsat a recent commissioning foundation workshop revealed that a quarter of those attending, had written ‘learning about commissioning’ in their Professional Development Plan (personal experience). If we believe that ‘Good commissioning is integral to being a good GP’ then support should be aimed at the majority of GPs who are ‘interested but not yet involved’. This book might be a useful aid in this process.
However, the book lacked basic simple graphs, tables, diagrams, and examples to illustrate key messages which was a pity.
Clinical commissioning moves the NHS from essentially PCT-led activity-based-contracting based on in-patient admissions, out-patient activity and A&E attendances, to clinical-led outcome-based-commissioning centred on population outcomes within a tighter financial framework. Reading this bookwould help create some understanding of terms and systems and different ways of working.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2011
