CCGs will be measured on smoking rates in people with serious mental illness and early diagnoses of cancer if proposals by NICE are accepted by NHS England.
NICE set out it proposals for new additions to the CCG outcomes indicator set for 2014/15, which also includes aspects of care related to hip fracture and reducing the numbers of premature deaths among people with serious mental illness.
If NHS England ratifies the proposed indicators, CCGs will publish data relating to them from 2014/15 and NICE says it hopes it will influence the services commissioned by CCGs.
NICE said that it has been reported that deaths from smoking-related diseases are twice as high among people with schizophrenia so its new indicator will measure the percentage of people with serious mental illness who smoke. It will support local understanding of smoking rates in people with serious mental illness, and should prompt action which should lead to improved health.
The cancer diagnosis indicator will measure the proportion of people with cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) who first present to secondary care as an emergency to prompt investigation into how to encourage people to go to a relevant clinic earlier and therefore improving rates of survival.
The regulator opened a public consultation on this set of indicators in February this year and they have since also undergone feasibility testing.
The outcomes indicators are intended to ‘provide clear, comparative information for CCGs, Health and Wellbeing Boards and local authorities about the quality of health services and associated health outcomes’.
Indicators for CCGs were introduced in April 2013. They are identified and developed from NICE quality standards and from other existing indicator collections, for example, national audits. Final indicators are decided by NHS England. More than 30 indicators across five domains were published for 2013/14. Over the next five years NICE will publish a library of 180 standards touching on most aspects of NHS care
Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care at NICE, said: ‘We’re pleased to be publishing this new menu of indicators for clinical commissioning groups recommended by the independent advisory committee.
‘By setting out the aspects of care that are essential in enabling the best health outcomes, the quality of care being commissioned for local people can be measured. This general approach will enable the groups responsible for commissioning NHS care to make changes based on local needs, and will ultimately improve the standards of health care.’
Professor Danny Keenan, chair of the advisory committee said: ‘We’re delighted to recommend this robust set of indicators for potential inclusion in the 2014/15 indicator set. We hope they will help the new CCGs to commission NHS services that will improve the quality of people’s lives.’
