Other maps of the new NHS: clinical commissioning groups (CCGs); local area teams (LATs); specialised commissioning hubs and clinical senates.
I’ve previously written about the development of CSUs on this blog, and it’s now one of the main subjects of my first report for EHI Intelligence. Budgets and staff numbers from a sample of the 22 CSUs suggest they will set a total budget of approximately £670m for the 2013-14 financial year, and employ about 8,500 staff. It’s been covered by my colleagues on the EHI newsdesk, and there’s more details on the report here.
It’s also been possible to map CSU coverage areas, at least provisionally. We’ve made the following version available for free – details of how to embed it are at the bottom of this page. (Those who buy or get the report as part of their subscription get similar maps, but with more data.)
Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.
In many cases, the coverage areas share boundaries with those of NHS Commissioning Board local area teams, which I mapped last week. But that isn’t always the case, and there are also some areas which, as far as we can tell, are not currently covered by a CSU (in light grey). CSUs are expected to chase new business, so this map is set to change over time. We’ve already seen a merger of two CSUs, Merseyside and Cheshire, since I mapped them last autumn (without coverage areas at that stage).
Commissioning support units will clearly be an important part of the English NHS in future – they will provide most clinical commissioning groups with IT, business intelligence, payroll, accounting and other support services. In at least some cases, they will also be absorbing healthcare informatics services. IT suppliers are going to need to get to know them pretty quickly.