Integrated Care Boards (ICB) have a legal duty to provide health services for patients registered with NHS GPs within their geographical area. The amount of money received from the Government is fixed and cannot be exceeded. It is the ICBs’ job is to get the best value for this money by spending it wisely on your behalf.
NHS organisations nationally and across the country have developed Clinical Commissioning Policies for many common healthcare interventions with the following key principles:
- Improve the quality of care for everyone
- Reduce the risk of harm to patients
- Minimise unwarranted variation in service provision
- Optimise the use of finite resources and ensure any money saved is spent on effective treatments.
This means that only treatments with good evidence-base will be funded by the NHS and only when the clinical needs of the patient require so as described in the Clinical Commissioning Policies.
Frimley ICB’s Clinical Commissioning Policies are listed below and all providers providing NHS funded care must follow these.