The new Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Committee Group, which has recently been established as a sub-committee of the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cluster of PCTS, has been given delegated responsibility for £329 million or 70% of the existing £461million NHS budget for Rotherham ensuring that people continue to receive high quality hospital, community, ambulance and mental health services. The remainder of the budget will stay with the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cluster and be used to commission primary care services such as GPs, public health and specialised health services.  This arrangement will continue until the new formal arrangements for managing the NHS come into force in April 2013 subject to the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill currently at Committee stage of the Parliamentary process.

The new Clinical Commissioning Group Committee is made up of local GPs and NHS managers, and will shortly be recruiting nurse and hospital consultant members.  It will operate in shadow form to oversee the commissioning of services in Rotherham until formally authorised as a Board in its own right in April 2013.

Dr David Tooth, Chairman of the Clinical Commissioning Group said: "This move signals a significant step forward for Rotherham as decisions about local healthcare services gain greater input from local clinicians. We are all looking forward to the challenges ahead in developing our plans and taking responsibility for substantial public resources.

“However the NHS is a very complex organisation and the GPs involved greatly value the guidance from the team at NHS Rotherham who are being instrumental in steering us forward into our new role. It will take time to learn everything there is to know but with our clinical knowledge and fresh perspective I think we have every chance of creating a service that offers the very best clinical care for the people of Rotherham within the resources we will have available to us.”

NHS Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group Committee will meet each month with their discussions feeding into the public meetings of the NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cluster Board. Dates of these public meetings are available on our website at www.rotherham.nhs.uk

Note to Editors:

 1.         NHS clusters have been introduced by the Department of Health to ensure the NHS maintains quality of care and financial stability as the responsibility for buying health services is transferred from PCTs to Clinical Commissioning Groups. NHS South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw cluster is one of six in the Yorkshire and Humber region and is made up of representatives from each PCT area; in this case Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

Each of the PCTs making up the clusters will continue as statutory organisations in their own right, but with a joint approach to maintaining core statutory duties.

 2.         Commissioning – the term used in the NHS to describe the authority to perform commercial transactions by buying or procuring services. For example NHS Rotherham commissions health services from hospitals on behalf of the people of Rotherham.

 3.         NHS Rotherham is still legally a Primary Care Trust.

Ref: NHSR11-P60