Commissioning director supports diverse CCG boards

Dame Barbara Hakin, the National Director for Commissioning, believes reduced numbers of doctors on CCG boards is actually a positive development.

The Government’s commissioning tsar was responding after research found that financial restraints were causing CCGs to find alternative board members.

She called CCGs “mature” for searching for a “wide variety of individuals on the governing bodies”.

An investigation by Pulse magazine found that on 44% of CCG boards fewer than half of members were doctors.

Critics argued that GPs were being forced to accept limited roles in overseeing the commissioning process – despite being placed at the heart of the reforms by the Government.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the NHS Commissioning Board, Dame Barbara said there were actually initial concerns that GPs would dominate CCG boards when the new measures were announced.

“There was, initially, a great degree of concern that because CCGs are membership organisations, built from the basis of the practices… that the governing bodies would be absolutely dominated by GPs and would not start to reflect their communities and key stakeholders,” she said.

“It is interesting that we are starting to get some evidence that the organisations have been really mature and that they aren’t absolutely dominated by GPs.”