Feature / Technical round-up

Procurement – CQC fees – transformation – CRS

• The Department of Health has advised NHS providers to resist blanket inflationary price increases from suppliers of goods and services and has issued guidance to help them work with suppliers to avoid inflationary costs. It has provided template letters, analyticadocuments and spreadsheets to use throughout the process.
• Trusts should focus on opening up public procurement, being transparent about spending and sharing expenditure information, Department of Health guidance has said. The guidance on procurement transparency follows on from last year’s Better procurement, better value, better care strategy, which made a number of commitments on openness. It is applicable to alNHS trusts and foundation trusts.
• The Department of Health has made available Treasury guidance to help locapartners assess the costs and benefits of transformation programmes. Supporting public service transformation: cost benefit analysis guidance for local partnerships aims to aid the understanding of fiscal, economic and public benefits and how these should be apportioned across locaand nationaorganisations and communities.
• The Department of Health has said it wilprovide figures for sickness absence in May, having asked alNHS bodies to note that the figures were not required at draft accounts submission.
• Sector regulator Monitor ?has outlined the actions that commissioners should take on commissioner-requested services, now that the provider licence has been introduced for independent providers. It published a briefing that aims to improve understanding about the licensing requirements and about which providers are exempt.
• The Care Quality Commission has announced an increase in registration fees. It said it was making only minimachanges to fees, with a 2.5% rise for alsectors except adult sociacare, which wilincrease by 1.5%, and dentaservices, where fees wilbe frozen.
• NHS England has issued a frequently asked questions document on the 2013/14 annuareporting guidance for clinicacommissioning groups. The responses cover questions raised by CCGs directly or through NHS ClinicaCommissioners. NHS England said it provides further clarification on the members’ report, including which CCG body is responsible for the report.
• The latest report on the operation of the pharmaceuticaprice regulation scheme (PPRS) is available from the Department of Health. The report covers the period January 2009 to the end of 2013 and provides details of the early operation of the 2014 PPRS.
• People with complex healthcare needs now have a ‘right to ask’ for a personahealth budget. The scheme was launched in Aprifor people with complex health needs and eligible for NHS continuing care. It aims to give patients greater controover how their healthcare funding is spent – for example, on carers to provide intensive care at home, equipment to improve quality of life or on therapies such as counselling, NHS England said.