Pulse - Practice-based commissioning (PBC) for GPs

Latest PBC news

GP referrals to hospital continue to rise steadily

23 Jun 09
Lansley pledges real commissioning budgets 'within a year of election'

11 Jun 09
Signs of PBC green shoots?

27 May 09

Reality of ‘slash and burn’ cuts ahead dawns on PBC

23 Jun 09
ICOs could become too big, warns DH tsar

27 May 09
Missing freed-up resources make a 'mockery' of PBC

27 May 09

Focus on

Focus on...diagnostics

24 Jun 09

This month's focus on features PBC pioneers offering diagnostics in general practice as part of a bigger service redesign, including a one-stop menstrual disorder clinic, echocardiogram service and outpatient hysteroscopy.

The challenge of rapid diagnostics access
23 Jun 09
Top tips for moving into diagnostics
01 Jul 09
How we set up a one-stop menstrual disorder clinic
25 Jun 09
How our echocardiogram service turned round patient care
25 Jun 09
Outpatient hysteroscopy in general practice
25 Jun 09

Focus on...avoiding outpatients

28 May 09

This month's Focus On...shows how practice can connect with consultants without sending patiennts for a costly hospital outpatient appointment. Features include setting up a consultant advice service, using software to cut AF referrals and...

The motivation behind avoiding outpatient appointments
29 May 09
How we set up a consultant advice service
29 May 09
Using software to cut atrial fibrillation referrals
29 May 09
How telemedicine can cut referrals
29 May 09

More Focus on...

How to

How persistence shifted prostate cancer care

23 Jun 09

Dr Tony Brzezicki on how routine prostate cancer follow-ups were eventually moved into primary care with dramatic results

How to… set up care home reviews

23 Jun 09

Dr Niti Pall explains how her PBC group set up a scheme to review the needs of residents in nursing homes and improve their quality of care

How to…develop PBC muscle with an integrated care approach

27 May 09
Why we relaunched our urgent care plan to boost outcomes

29 Apr 09

How to... commission a pharmacist-led COPD service

27 May 09
How to...set up a hearing aid clinic that sees patients in a week

29 Apr 09

More How to

Opinion

What next for freed-up resources?

23 Jun 09

With many PBC consortiums looking set to miss out on the freed-up resources owed this year, we asked five experts what this means for the bigger PBC picture

Moving from supporter to player

23 Jun 09

Dr Peter Devlin on how GPs in Brighton feel a real part of the local health economy – rather than onlookers in the stands

PBC postcard: Dr Gurkirit Kalkat

23 Jun 09

Chair of Barking & Dagenham Quality Care Health Consortium, London

18 months to save the NHS?

23 Jun 09

NAPC chair Dr Johnny Marshall on why it’s so important PBC makes its mark over the next 18 months

More opinion

SHA snapshot

Spotlight on... South London

23 Jun 09

In the second of our two-part special looking at how PBC is doing in the capital, Kathy Oxtoby reports on developments south of the Thames

Spotlight on... North London

27 May 09

We look beyond the headline figures to examine the progress of PBC in individual SHAs. In the first of two articles focusing on the capital, Kathy Oxtoby reports on developments north of the Thames.

More SHA snapshots

Top tips

Dealing with the reluctant practice

23 Jun 09

Is a poorly performing practice blotting your PBC group’s copybook? Emma Wilkinson has 10 practical tips for engaging all practices

PBC diaries

Tough times, tough decisions

23 Jun 09

This month our diarist has to defend a decision to refuse an ultrasound scanner bid while an echocardiograph scheme was given the green light

More PBC diaries

All you need to know

Demystifying the quality agenda

27 May 09

Lord Darzi outlined his plans for the quality agenda in his report last year and some of his initiatives are already under way – at least in pilot form. Emma Wilkinson takes a look at the developments that will have an effect on PBC

More All you need to know

Education - getting to grips with PBC

5-minute guide to...managing performance

27 May 09

The final article in our eight-part guide on the basics of PBC, produced by Michelle Webster and Beverley Slater of the Improvement Foundation

More Education

Editor's blog

Can practice based commissioning survive the press test?

10 Feb 09

Practical Commissioning editor Sue McNulty on the media relations of PBC

Just commission, will yer!

25 Nov 08

Susan McNulty finds a legendary reality show catchphrase pops into her mind while at the NAPC's annual conference.

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