Clinical Effectiveness Unit

About

The mission of the HNY Clinical Effectiveness Unit (CEU) is to support the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in delivering healthcare that is up-to-date, effective, efficient, and focused on reducing unwarranted clinical variation.​

Clinical pathways are designed to work across interfaces, translating guidelines, evidence, and ICB policies into standardised steps for managing specific clinical conditions. These pathways clearly define responsibilities between relevant provider services at each stage of care. Note: Standardised referral forms should be considered clinical pathways when they specify pre-referral requirements.​

Not all pathways will be adopted across the entire system; some may remain Place-specific due to local service configurations. However, wherever possible, pathways should be developed with the whole system in mind. Even when a pathway is intended to be Place-specific, CEU involvement is essential to ensure alignment with related ICB pathways and policies, and to facilitate coordination with other relevant ICB directorates where appropriate.

Definitions

There is a clear difference between a clinical commissioning policy and a clinical pathway, these have been defined below: 

  • Clinical pathways work across an interface aiming to translate guidelines, evidence and ICS policies into standardised steps in the course of care for a specific clinical problem and defining where responsibility lies between the relevant provider services at each step. N.B. Standardised referral forms should be treated as a clinical pathway if they define pre-referral requirements.​ 
  • Clinical commissioning policies define access to specified treatments that will be paid for by the NHS and provided information around the ICBs commissioning position 

Pathway development

Pathway developers must notify the CEU of their intention to develop/renew a pathway at the outset and submit the proposed pathway when it’s thought to be complete. The CEU can be notified through the following email address - hnyicb.clinicaleffectivenessunit@nhs.net.​

Pathway developers should ensure all relevant stakeholders are involved in the development prior to submission to the CEU, including as a minimum the below (in the event that it’s determined not all the below are required, a clear rationale will be expected to be provided):​​

  • ICB pathway leads​
  • Specialist service(s) ​​
  • Primary care​
  • LMC