The CCG is responsible for planning and buying (commissioning) local healthcare services. The services we buy are:
- Hospital care
- Rehabilitation care
- Urgent and emergency care
- Community health services
- Mental health and learning disability services
There are individual organisations that provide these services. The main providers in Stockport are:
- Our 37 GP practices
- Stockport NHS Foundation Trust – hospital and community services
- Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust – mental health
- Viaduct Care, GP Foundation – primary care and community services
- Care and Nursing Homes
We also work closely with Stockport Council who are responsible for social care services and public health.
We find out what engagement work the different organisations are doing and we work together as much as possible. We also take action on the back of feedback we get from engagement work.
How we hold providers to account
When a provider wants to make a change to a service, they should let the commissioners know. We then ask about their plans to involve patients in their changes and either get involved as commissioners where that is appropriate, or ask to see the engagement reports before any decisions are made.
Here are some of examples of when that might happen:
- GP practices wanting to change their services – ie moving a branch site.
- Changing the location of a service – for example, moving an outpatient clinic from a hospital site to a community site.
- Services changing the way they work together – e.g. community services working together as an integrated team.
Our Nursing and Quality team and our Commissioning Team are really important in this work as they will hear about changes through regular provider review meetings.
We work closely with them to make sure the CCG is asking the right questions, focusing most on those people who will find it hardest to access our services.
Information on the the activity undertaken by local providers and how we work with them can be found in our Statement of Involvement.