Archive of: March, 2016

• SHCA responds to consultation on Clinical Reference Group changes

  March 2016

  The Specialised Healthcare Alliance has responded to NHS England’s consultation on the future of its Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs).

  CRGs provide service-specific advice to NHS England on its commissioning of specialised care and have been a core part of national commissioning since its establishment in April 2013.

  NHS England is proposing to reduce the number of CRGs, while also providing them the secretarial support which has been a notable absence to date. While welcoming the further resource being made available for CRGs in future, the Alliance is calling for far greater detail to be made available on how CRG sub-groups will operate to ensure that CRGs retain the ability to provide expert clinical advice on service proposals.

  With a tight post-consultation timeline envisaged by NHS England before the new groups are constituted and populated, the Alliance looks forward to seeing NHS England’s response to the consultation, which will need to demonstrate its responsiveness to feedback.

  The SHCA’s submission can be read here: SHCA – CRG consultation response – March 2016