Health Serv Deliv Res 2015;3(10)
- Under the 2012 NHS reform CCGs now buy – ‘commission’ – services from NHS bodies, charities, voluntary organisations, local government and private firms.
- This study of CCGs in four English case studies found that in certain ways this system was not yet working as policy documents assumed.
- Commissioning work was often laborious and uncertain.
- Doctors played little part in financial negotiations with hospitals.
- There was little competition between hospitals, and what competition there was affected only a few aspects of hospital services.
- Legal controls were rarely used.
- This report describes the convergence of commissioners’ and providers' interests across multi organisational pathways.
