EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – August 1, 2008 - North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus (CTP) today signed an agreement with UnitedHealth UK, a division of Ingenix – a leading health information, technology and consulting company – to help improve the way in which it commissions health services for local people.
UnitedHealth UK is one of the suppliers on the Department of Health’s Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners (FESC), a national initiative set up to support Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) around the country in undertaking support to deliver part of their commissioning functions.
Jane Lewington, chief executive of the CTP, said, “The CTP has a proud reputation for innovation and excellence. Our commissioning function was already rated as good, however we were keen to improve this still further and offer even more responsive and patient-driven services. The FESC process enables us to benefit from the expertise of an organization with a track record of improving health care for patients to improve our capacity and capability and we’re delighted, following a comprehensive and exhaustive process, to have chosen UnitedHealth UK to work in partnership with us.”
The Department of Health requires PCTs to:
- Continually assess their performance,
- Respond to the ever-changing needs of the local population,
- Effectively manage performance to ensure quality services are maintained and
- Put local people firmly at the center of all that it does.
The successful appointment of UnitedHealth UK as the CTP’s FESC partner represents a further significant step in meeting these requirements.
Dave Ostler, president of Ingenix International, said, “Improving the commissioning of services leads to better care for patients. We will be drawing on our analytical expertise to help assess the health needs of people in North East Lincolnshire and then working closely with Commissioning Groups to support them in prioritizing and securing the right services for their patients."
UnitedHealth UK will work in partnership with the CTP over the next two years in several key areas, including helping the CTP to support the delivery of Practice Based Commissioning and support greater understanding of the structure of supply.
Notes to editors:
FESC
- The Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners (FESC) was developed in response to a vision set out in the White Paper Health Reform in England: update and commissioning framework (July 2006).
- It was officially announced by the Department of Health in October 2007 to strengthen commissioning in the NHS. The government believes that making PCTs better commissioners will improve the health service as a whole.
- The FESC framework recognises that PCTs will need to develop excellent skills in a range of commissioning processes such as identifying population health needs, data collection and analysis, service evaluation and redesign and procurement and performance management.
- Primary care trusts around the country have been conducting “fit for purpose” audits to identify skill gaps for world-class commissioning.
- FESC is designed to help by:
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Providing easy access to a framework of organizations, offering a range of skills and experience, that have been through a robust pre-qualification process by the Department of Health, |
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Saving time in undertaking procurement activities with easy access to optimum value for money solutions, |
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Minimizing the range of organizations offering resources, which will reduce the legal and cost implications that can be encountered when seeking to procure external support, and |
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Adopting more innovative and efficient approaches to commissioning. |
UnitedHealth UK
UnitedHealth UK is a division of Ingenix, a subsidiary organization of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), that works to improve health care through the use of information and technology, using data and evidence-based information to improve the quality, affordability and accessibility of health care.
Ingenix works with more than 250,000 health care customers internationally, and employs more than 7,500 health care and technology professionals.
UnitedHealth UK only works with the NHS, combining an in-depth experience and understanding of the NHS with access to the resources and know-how of its parent company. For more information, please visit www.unitedhealthuk.co.uk and www.ingenix.com. |
