County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was formed on 1 April 2020 to bring together responsibilities for health services in the areas of Durham Dales, Easington, Sedgefield and North Durham.
What are CCGs?
Clinical Commissioning Groups are NHS organisations that are responsible for the planning and purchasing of healthcare services on behalf of local people.
County Durham CCG is responsible for commissioning physical and mental health care for the population within the boundaries of Durham Dales, Easington, Sedgefield and North Durham. This includes people who are registered with a GP practice and those who are not.
We are a membership organisation made up of all GP practices in Durham Dales, Easington, Sedgefield and North Durham. This means that all GP practices get to have a say in how local health services are delivered.
How we work
Doctors and nurses across Durham Dales, Easington, Sedgefield and North Durham work with experienced managers to identify the needs of local people and put health services in place. We are given a budget to ensure we have hospital and community services available to local people. We put contracts in place with organisations that provide health care to ensure the services we need are available locally and that they are delivered to a high standard. We monitor the quality of these services and are continually looking for ways in which services can be improved and work more effectively. This is known as commissioning health services.
The services we are responsible for commissioning include:
- urgent care services from hospitals, NHS 111 and local ‘out of hours’ services
- planned inpatient and day-case hospital services
- diagnostic and treatment services, such as x-ray or hearing aid services
- community services
- mental health services
- learning disability services
- maternity and children’s services
- medicines prescribed by the GP practices within the CCG boundary
- continuing health care and free nursing care services
- delegated authority from NHS England to commission primary care services delivered in GP practices
Of the services that we do not commission, the majority are commissioned by NHS England including:
- Specialised services that are needed only by a small number of people
- Primary care services such as dentists, opticians and pharmacists
- Oral surgery and dental services from hospitals
- Healthcare for members of the armed forces
- Healthcare for people in prison
Our annual report will tell you how we use our budget each year, and we also list details of contracts over £25,000 on our website too.
We also work closely other local health and social care partners.
We work with local councils who provide a range of care and public health services. We jointly plan with the aim of delivering integrated services which means that health and social care services work together in ways that complement each other and reduce gaps and barriers for patients and staff.
We will also work with Primary Care Networks. These are partnerships of GP practices working together and with other local health and care providers to deliver services in a coordinated way. Networks are usually centered around natural communities. Find more details about primary care networks.