Since the 1990s, the Commission has periodically completed studies on the development of commissioning organisations, the management of primary care and some aspects of the delivery of primary care services.
The Commission has published studies on all the various forms of commissioning organisations. Our Briefing on GP fundholding (1995), What the doctor ordered – A study of GP fundholding (1996) and Fundholding facts (1996) looked at the implementation of GP fundholding. PCGs – An early view of primary care groups in England, published in 1999, and The PCG agenda, published in 2000, charted the early progress of primary care groups. While Early lessons in implementing practice based commissioning, published in 2006 and Putting commissioning into practice, published in 2007, examined how well practice based commissioning was working.
We have also published a number of studies focusing on the delivery of primary care. In 2003, Personal medical services reflected on the learning from the new GP pilot contracts. We followed this us in 2004 with Transforming primary care, which examined PCTs new duty to secure primary medical services. The Commission has published a small number of studies on the more clinical aspects of primary care, such as dentistry and primary care prescribing. In Quicker treatment closer to home, published in 2004, we focused on the redesign of care pathways from primary care into consultant outpatient services. The Commission no longer undertakes such studies.
More recently our work has concentrated on financial management aspects of commissioning and primary care. In 2011, we looked at PCTs oversight of the quality and outcomes framework in Paying GPs to improve quality. We followed this with Costing care pathways, in 2011, undertaken jointly with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which sought to understand the costs of diabetes care pathway.