GP consortia pathfinders announced: four in Greater Manchester

The first groups of GPs who will take the lead in the Government’s plans for commissioning health services have been announced.
They have been selected to be the first to take on commissioning responsibilities as part of the Government’s plans set out in the NHS white paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.
The 52 groups selected, known as pathfinders, will work together to manage their local budgets and commission services for patients direct with other NHS colleagues and local authorities. The pathfinders will begin testing the new commissioning arrangements to ensure they are working well before more formal arrangements come into place.
There will now be a rolling programme with more pathfinders to be announced in the New Year. The programme will enable as many consortia as possible to proceed to ‘shadow’ running in 2011/12. Consortia will begin to take on statutory responsibilities in 2012/13. Primary Care Trusts will be abolished from April 2013.
It is important that VCS organisations in the pathfinder areas work together to engage with the new GP consortia – and in some areas the sector is already being identified as a group that GPs will want to engage with. However, there are many demands going to be made on these new consortia and it is important that the VCS has a coherent approach or their voice will not be heard and opportunities to deliver services will be lost.
Of the groups selected, four are in Greater Manchester: Salford PBC Consortium (55 practices), Stockport Managed Care (53), Manchester (three consortia) (105), and Trafford Commissioning Consortium (37).

(from: VSNW Health Bulletin Extra – Dec 2010)