By Susan McNulty
GPs should not expect any further guidance on forming consortia, Dame Barbara Hakin told today's NAPC annual conference.
Commissioning tsar Dame Barbara said she was often being asked when more guidance was going to come in terms of the right size of consortia and what form they should take.
‘My personal view is you are not going to get any more guidance. This is a permissive policy allowing you to be bottom-up. In terms of size, consortium should decide what size is for them.'
She later added: ‘People say to me who is going to authorise the decisions we take and my answer is "you will".'
On the issue of accountable officers, Dame Barbara, said GPs should not fear taking on such a role given the difficult decisions GPs have to make as clinicians.
‘In terms of scary decisions, we make them already.'
Asked how GPs can be released from their day jobs to take on commissioning roles, Dame Barbara said this would eventually be funded from the management allowance but hinted at funds becoming available to allow this to happen during the transition period.
NAPC chair, Dr Johnny Marshall said: ‘Commissioning needs to become part of the day job – not the night job.'
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