The documents in this section of the NHS Devon website set out the governance, accountability and processes for local decision making.

This applies to the commissioning of medicines, treatments and other health technology in order to fulfil the obligations for patients under the NHS Constitution.

Please be aware that there is a large amount of information to be posted and this work is underway.

• Overarching Policies
• Patient Access Schemes Individual Drugs
• Forms
• Leaflets
• Commissioning Policies
• Effective Practice Committee recommendations
• Joint Formularies covering NHS Devon patients
• Patient Group Directions
• Shared Care Guidelines
• Utilisation Management Schemes
• Peninsula collaborative commissioning for drugs and health technologies 

What are Specialised Services? 

Specialised services involve complex treatments or packages of care, often for relatively or extremely rare conditions.

The services may involve the use of very specialised technology and equipment or drugs delivered by a specialist workforce, expert in that area.

Some, but not all, of the services are high cost.

In other words, Specialised Services are those that involve rare and unusual illnesses or treatments.

These characteristics lead to the need for specialised services to be planned and commissioned using populations of at least 1 million, which is larger than most of those served by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).

Therefore, the South West Specialised Commissioning Group (SWSCG) was established in April 2007 to work together to commission specialised services on behalf of the 14 PCTs that serve the South West.

To find out more please go to www.swscg.nhs.uk