The CCG is responsible for planning and buying (commissioning) healthcare services to meet the needs of local people. The services we buy include GP services, Community services, Hospital services and Mental health services. In Lincolnshire, some of the main organisations that provide these include:
Commissioned services/providers
GP services – 86 member GP practices within the Lincolnshire CCG area
Mental health services – Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Hospital services
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (Lincoln County Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital, Boston and Grantham and District Hospital)
- Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust
- North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (Peterborough City Hospital, Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Stamford & Rutland Hospital)
Community services – Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
Care & Nursing Homes
- Commissioned by Lincolnshire County Council
- Nursing Care is quality monitored by NHS Lincolnshire CCG
How we hold providers to Account
Systems and processes to check the quality of services and patient opinion.
We use the following processes to check the Quality of Services:
- Complaints, compliments and comments data
- National Surveys such as Care Quality Commission Survey
- Friends and Family Test results
- Feedback provided by Healthwatch Lincolnshire
- Local surveys
- Quality Visits to providers
- Listening Clinics
- Contract Monitoring
Changes to services
When providers need to make a change to services, they are required to let commissioners know. We will ask about their plans to engage and involve patients in their changes. We would get involved in this process where this was appropriate or would request to see evidence of the involvement activity before any decisions about changes to services are made.
Involvement of the Locality, Quality and Equality teams
The involvement of our Locality Team, Quality Team and Equality Lead are really important when planning changes to health services. Our Engagement Team works closely with both to ensure the CCG is asking the right questions, especially regarding people in our population who may find it harder to access our services, or take part in our engagement exercises.
Engagement Leads Meeting
The CCG and NHS providers in Lincolnshire are currently meeting every two weeks to find out what engagement work each organisation is doing, in order to work together as a health care system. Each organisation also takes action based on the feedback received from patients and the public, as a result of our engagement work.
Our work with our GP practices
Since April 2016, it has been a contractual requirement for practices in England to have a Patient Participation Group (PPG), and to make reasonable effort that the group is representative of the practice population. (Guidance for GMS contract 2015/16). We encourage all practices to have a Patient Participation Group, and provide support to practices with setting these up and attending their meetings to provide updates.