Health secretary Andrew Lansley has made it clear that clinical commissioning groups will be free to work with "whomever they want" on commissioning support. In a letter to the chair of the NHS Commissioning Board, Professor Malcolm Grant, he says CCGs will be in "full control" of the support they receive.

This is welcome news to the NHS Alliance, which recently published a survey of CCG leaders showing that more than 70% of respondents were unhappy with the support being offered. However, the BMA is concerned that commissioning support services will inevitably be sold to or taken over by the private sector.

Another story this week suggests that this concern is not unfounded. International service company Serco has taken over the contract for one of the largest NHS shared services organisations - the Anglia Support Partnership. Remember to fill out our survey of CCG support, IT and information services, to influence our future coverage of these issues.

Meanwhile, EHI Primary Care has been on a trip to Cumbria to look at the interoperability projects in the region. GPs and community services are using EMIS Web and the medical interoperability gateway to stream patient data live to a shared record.

CCGs given 'complete freedom' on support

Health secretary Andrew Lansley has said that clinical commissioning groups will have complete freedom to choose the organisation they want to use for commissioning support.

Serco takes over NHS shared service

An international service company has taken over the contract for one of the largest NHS shared services organisations in the country.

Audit Commission wants new datasets

The Audit Commission has criticised existing NHS datasets for failing to reflect what is happening to patients.

Out-of-hours comparison tool launched

Data on the quality of out-of-hours services can be easily compared by commissioners and providers using a new online benchmark tool.

Cumbria steps up record sharing

GPs and community services in Cumbria are streaming live into a shared patient record that can be viewed in some out-of-hours providers via Healthcare Gateway's medical interoperability gateway.

Scotland picks Docman for 16 prisons

NHS Scotland is deploying PCTI's Docman document management system in the country's prisons.

EHI Primary Care is running a survey that will be used to inform future coverage of the plans that CCGs are making for IT support, new systems, and information and analysis services in the new NHS.

The survey contains 20 questions and should take no more than five minutes to complete. All the information provided will, of course, be treated in strict confidence; but as a thank-you for taking part there is an opportunity to enter a prize draw to win £100 of Amazon vouchers.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the EHI Primary Care editorial team.

"The trust was looking at ways to save money by making do with fewer support staff and reducing the pay and conditions of those remaining. Because the public sector insists on treating staff fairly and reasonably, the easiest way to achieve this is to privatise it all."

"The government is always looking for white knights riding in firing silver bullets, but unfortunately, white knights and silver bullets don't exist."

Ewan Davis, chair of the Primary Health Info 2012 conference, which is taking place this week.

EHI Primary Care

The EHI Primary Care Group is dedicated to discussions of the issues covered in EHI Primary Care's news pages.