Centre for Policy on Ageing



Commissioning rehabilitation services in primary care
Author(s)	Tony Stern
Journal title	Managing Community Care, vol 6, issue 4, August 1998
Pages	pp 154-159
Keywords	General practice ; Coordination ; Rehabilitation ; Pilot ; Hillingdon.
Annotation	Twelve general practitioners (GPs) make up Hillingdon Total Purchasing Project, comprising three primary care teams in three practices, looking after a total of 27,000 patients. This article describes their involvement in a `total purchasing' pilot scheme and their approach to commissioning of community rehabilitation services. Funding the service was a major problem, given conflict between the health authority and the social services department (SSD) over who provides what `care'. Other weaknesses included the small size of the Project, difficulties with contracts (which have since been resolved), and persuading hospital-based staff to work in the community. Concerns with community issues including limits on hospital beds, and the balance and boundaries between institutional and community care have enabled the Project to develop a flexible system. Patients are offered different services according to their needs and wishes, and they no longer run the risk of becoming institutionalised through a long stay in hospital. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-981120004 A
Classmark	L5: QAJ: LM: 4UC: 82LI
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.