NHS C-day: CCGs on Twitter, and other useful information

Today is NHS C-Day – C for commissioning, as in CCG, CSU and commissioning boards now called NHS England. No doubt many people will have some other C-words they would use about it as well, but as the day of the biggest NHS reorganisation for many years is also Easter Monday, let’s look at something a bit less serious: which of the 211 clinical commissioning groups that have just sprung into existence have found the time to get on Twitter?

So far, I have found 41 Twitter accounts, including some shared between more than one CCGs like the three in Manchester, which are on the map below. I have set up a Twitter list of these – along with the two CSUs I have found on Twitter (Greater Manchester and South London), and four CCG heads, Jonathan Wells (Redditch and Bromsgrove), Alison Lee (West Cheshire), Phil Mettam (Bassetlaw) and Dr Shane Gordon (North East Essex). If you find more, tweet me @samathieson.

Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.

If you’re looking for more on the shape on the new NHS in England, here’s some suggestions.

On CCGs, NHS England has its maps here (it hasn’t quite got around to removing the NHS Commissioning Board logo and name yet). I mapped them a while ago for Guardian Healthcare Professionals Network; things haven’t changed too much since, although an update is due.

On CSUs, have a look at my latest post, which include an updated map of which CSUs are covering which CCGs, although it’s a fluid situation.

I also have maps on the site of NHS England’s local area teams, specialised commissioning hubs and clinical senates.

Will the changes help, hinder or make much difference? We’re going to find out. Last week, Roy Lilley called CCGs “PCTs in drag” – a nice phrase to get across that they are not really that different to the primary care trusts they replace. In many places, CCGs cover the same areas (in London, the map is almost unchanged) and employ former PCT people to do so. There may not be so much change (after all the job-hopping) after all, and many people in the NHS would be fairly content with that.