NHS Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is amongst the best performing in the country in a number of its key areas of work, according to the latest assessment by health regulators.

NHS England’s annual Improvement and Assessment Framework (IAF) assessment measures all CCGs against 58 performance indicators in areas ranging from leadership and sustainability, to cancer and dementia.  Results provide a benchmark for CCGs, so they can understand where they are doing well and where they need to do more in the year ahead.

NHS Southport and Formby CCG ranked top in the country for improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT), with 64% of patients who finished treatment moving on to recovery. The CCG rated ‘outstanding’ for its work to identify people living with dementia, with 76% of the estimated number of people with the condition having a diagnosis.

The CCG also ranked top in the country for patients’ experience of cancer services and were ranked fifth in the country for cancer survival rates. Results also place the CCG tenth in the country for meeting the waiting time target of 18 weeks or less for patients being referred by their practice to having hospital treatment or surgery.

Results also reflected the work of GP practices in Southport and Formby, ranking them sixth highest in the country for patients’ good experience of their services and care.

Additionally, the CCG was awarded the highest rating for how well it engages local residents in its work, making it and neighbouring NHS South Sefton CCG the only two in Merseyside to receive the top ‘green star’ result.

Overall, the CCG maintained its 'requires improvement' status for the third year in a row, reflecting the hard work carried out by the CCG to secure good results across a number of areas amidst another testing year for the NHS commissioner. Whilst the CCG made progress in managing its budget, its ongoing financial positon remains challenging as demand for services continues to grow.   

Dr Rob Caudwell, chair of the CCG, said: "Despite being rated as 'requires improvement', it is encouraging to have so many aspects of our work praised by NHS England and to see we are doing so well in many key areas of health for our residents.

"We will continue to build on these positives and look at those areas where we need to make quicker progress over the next 12 months, importantly ensuring that we continue to make improvements to our financial position.

"I want to thank all of our staff and member GP practices for the hard work they're doing to face these challenges and deliver improvements in care for our patients."

Key areas of improvement for the CCG include supporting the improvement of Better Health metrics for services such as diabetes, falls and antimicrobial resistance and Better Care metrics for services such as dementia, maternity, mental health and primary care.

You can see the full IAF results for all CCGs on the MyNHS section of the NHS Choices website: www.nhs.uk/service-search/Performance/Search