Final budgets for the purchase of patient care will be allocated to CCGs in mid-December.
The fair shares formula currently being developed will be used to calculate the allocation taking into account the individual circumstances of each practice within a CCG area. It will be based upon the number of patients registered at each GP practice and include the previously diagnosed conditions of the CCG population. Factors that may raise costs in some areas include higher birth rates and mental health service use will also be factored in.
The NHSCB is completing its baseline assessment of CCG budgets which is based upon money previously allocated to PCTs. When the NHSCB receives confirmation of its final mandate budget from the DH it may also be able to allocate additional funds to CCGs based on the fair shares formula.
The NHSCB's national director Dame Barbara Hakin said: 'Under the formula CCGs will get an allocation based on the PCT's previous allocation with uplift. The formula tells us what the target allocation might be.'
However she added that CCGs should not assume significant additional funding would be received when budgets are being set: 'My advice to everyone is to work on the assumption of the minimum that you can expect to get.'
For the first time funding for the commissioning of healthcare will be separate from organisational running costs a measure intended to prioritise patient allocations. CCGs have already been told they will receive ?25 per person to pay management and administration costs.