Closed Engagement

This page shows our past consultation and engagement exercises and the feedback from them.

Closed

Policy Alignment (engagement closed on 25 May 2020)

From 1 April 2020, the four Clinical Commissioning Groups across Worcestershire and Herefordshire (NHS Redditch & Bromsgrove CCG, NHS South Worcestershire CCG, NHS Wyre Forest CCG and NHS Herefordshire CCG) merged to become a single CCG, NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire CCG.

As part of the process leading up to this merger, the previous four CCGs have reviewed all of their clinical commissioning policy statements so a new set can be produced for the new CCG to use.  The CCGs had over 150 statements to review and a team of GPs, Commissioners and Public Health were formed to undertake this work, which has been happening since August 2019. 

A lot of our statements were very similar and were easily aligned into the new format, however, some were more complex or very different and these needed to be discussed with GPs and specialists across both counties to make sure that any changes were clinically appropriate. 

Each policy statement that has been produced for the new CCG has gone through a very robust review process, including checking that they were fair and equitable and that the impact any changes may have on patients was understood.  For some areas of these policies, the CCGs considered that local patient engagement on those changes was necessary before moving to an agreed form of words for these statements.

As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, whilst the CCG merger went ahead from the 1 April 2020, the way that the NHS has been expected to work has changed to release capacity to treat patients with this virus as a priority.  Therefore, whilst it states in this engagement document that the policies will be in place from the 1 April 2020, this will now happen once the NHS has been told that it can go back to normal business.

In the meantime, we appreciate the time you are taking to read through our recommendations and engage with us on the proposed statements for the new CCG.

Why are we looking at the policies?

As four separate organisations, there were different commissioning policy documents across the two counties. The CCGs have been working together to align our policies, to ensure that people of Herefordshire and Worcestershire are receiving the same care within the same time frame, based on the same clinical reasons.

We have already aligned many of these into approved policy documents. In these instances, there has been no change to the patient’s treatment, eligibility or pathway. The only difference is that now the policy applies to both Herefordshire and Worcestershire residents within a single document.

The policies have been reviewed by CCG staff, hospital clinicians and GPs, as well as colleagues from our local partners to ensure they are in line with robust clinical evidence, national guidance and are the same for patients in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. All of the policies will be published on our new website.

In a small number of cases, the policies are not able to align without the need for change. These are the polices we will discuss below.

What does this mean for me?

In most cases, there will be no impact to patients at all. At present, there are three one policies which has been highlighted as a potential change for patients. The details can be found below.

As we continue to work through our policies, we will keep you updated with any of those which may have an impact on patients.

What are we proposing to change?

The following policy has been highlighted for a proposed change:

Policy	Status	Information	Give your comments
Varicose veins	Closed	Ran from 18 February - 23 March 2020
Cataracts	Closed	Ran from 27 April - 25 May 2020
Aesthetic breast policies	Closed	Ran from 27 April - 25 May 2020

How can I have my say?

This survey closed on Monday 25 May 2020.

If you have any queries please contact the engagement team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..