THE organisation that plans and pays for the majority of health services for the people of North East Hampshire and Farnham has been rated ‘outstanding’ by NHS England.

NHS North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was one of just 21 out of 209 CCGs to receive the top rating.

The announcement, under the national CCG annual assessment, marks an improvement on last year, when the CCG was assessed as ‘good’.

In a letter to the CCG, Dominic Hardy, director of commissioning operations for NHS England’s Wessex region, wrote: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank the CCG and its staff for the hard work that took place during 2016/17.

“The collective efforts and the outcomes achieved by the CCG are fully recognised by the NHS England Wessex team.”

The quality of the CCG’s leadership was rated as Green Star, meaning that NHS England considered it to be very good and demonstrated practices that served as examples to others.

As part of the review the CCG was also assessed on its performance on cancer, mental health and dementia services. All were rated as good.

Dr Peter Bibawy, the CCG’s medical director, said: “To receive an overall rating of outstanding is fantastic news and is recognition of all the hard work and commitment from everyone at North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG.

“We are fortunate that we work in a local health system with so many excellent partner organisations, across the public, private and voluntary sectors, and that local people are so dedicated to helping us to improve services.

“We will all continue to do all that we can to ensure that the people of North East Hampshire and Farnham have access to the best possible health and care services when and where they need them.”

NHS North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG is the group of health professionals responsible for planning and buying the majority of local health services for their population of more than 225,000 residents registered at GP practices in Farnham, Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet, Yateley and the surrounding areas.