IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This website is no longer being updated.

NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group has been legally dissolved and from 1 July 2022 has been replaced by a new organisation: NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (SY ICB). NHS South Yorkshire ICB is now responsible for commissioning and funding of health and care services locally. Please go to our new website www.southyorkshire.icb.nhs.uk for information about the work of NHS South Yorkshire ICB and details about how to contact us.

Thank you.

We want you to have more care closer to your home...

Glossary of terms

A

A&E: Accident & Emergency is a service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week where people receive treatment for medical and surgical emergencies that are likely to need admission to hospital. This includes severe pneumonia, diabetic  coma, bleeding from the gut, complicated fractures that need surgery, and other serious illnesses.

Acute care: Acute care refers to short–term treatment, usually in a hospital, for patients with any kind of illness or injury.

Acute trust: NHS acute trusts manage hospitals.  Some are regional or national centres for specialist care, others are attached to universities and help to train health professionals.  Some acute trusts also provide community services.

Ambulatory care: Ambulatory care is a patient-focused service where some conditions may be treated without the need for an overnight stay in hospital. You will receive the same medical treatment you would previously have received as an inpatient. The aim of this service is to provide you with the care required to treat your condition during scheduled ambulatory care opening hours. You will be able to return home and if further treatment is required you will be asked to return to the unit to receive this.

Active Support and Recovery (ASAR): Active Support and Recovery (ASR) focuses on creating truly 'person-centered' care, where services are built around the user. It’s about working with our partners and providers to create the right model of care.

C

Care outside hospital: Care that takes place outside of hospital, in a community setting. This could be a patient's home, community bed or community health centre

Cardiothoracic: Is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of diseases affecting organs inside the thorax (the chest)—generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease) and lungs (lung disease).

Cardiovascular or CVD: This refers to the heart and blood vessels. Cardiovascular diseases affect the function of the cardiovascular system which carries nutrients and oxygen to the tissues of the body while removing carbon dioxide and other wastes from them.

CASES: 'CASES' is made up of the elements of Clinical Assessments, Services, Education and Support, and aims to provide a genuinely joined-up approach to delivering patient care.

Care plan: A plan for your care over the next few weeks or months. It should be written down and you should have a copy. If you think it is wrong, or something is missing, you can ask for it to be changed.

CCG Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG): These are the health commissioning organisations which replaced primary care trusts (PCTs) in April 2013. CCGs are led by GPs and represent a group of GP practices in a certain area. They are responsible for commissioning healthcare services in both community and hospital settings.

CHC: Continuing Healthcare. CHC is health care provided over an extended period of time for people with long-term needs or disability / people's care needs after hospital treatment has finished

Consultant: A person who provides professional or expert advice in a particular field.

Complex elective medicine or surgery: A planned operation or medical care where the patient may need to be in a high-dependency unit while recovering from the operation, either because the operation is complex or because they have other health problems.

Complex elective surgery: Including cancer operations, operations for heart disease, bariatric surgery and hip replacements

Commissioners Working Together: Commissioners Working Together is a collaborative of eight clinical commissioning groups and NHS England across South and Mid Yorkshire, Bassetlaw and North Derbyshire.

Continuity of care: Ensuring that people with long-term health conditions see the same team of GPs and other healthcare professionals at their local GP practice wherever possible.

COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD is a lung disease which causes difficulty or discomfort in breathing.

CQC - Care Quality Commission: This is an organisation funded by the Government to check all hospitals in England to make sure they are meeting government standards and to share their findings with the public.

E

Elective Hospital: This is where patients go if they need an operation which is not urgent and so can be planned.

Emergency surgery: Surgery that is not planned and which is needed for urgent conditions.  This includes surgery for appendicitis, perforated or obstructed bowel and gallbladder infections.  It is also known as non-elective surgery. 

F

Financial Surplus: When income is greater than spending.

Foundation trust: NHS foundation trusts are not-for-profit corporations.  They are part of the NHS yet they have greater freedom to decide their own plans and the way services are run.  Foundation trusts have members and a council of governors.  The aim is that eventually all NHS trusts will be FTs.

G

General Practitioner (GP): Your local doctor - or family doctor - who will usually be the first person you see if you have a physical illness or emotional problem. They can help you directly but can also refer you on for specialist care or assessment. Many GPs have a community psychiatric nurse, psychiatrist or counsellor who works at the GP surgery.

H

H&SC: Health and Social Care

Health and well-being board (HWB): Part of the NHS restructure, the aim of these boards is to encourage joint working between the NHS and local authorities across health and social care. HWBs are expected to be up and running in April 2013.

Health Centre or 'hub': A setting for care outside hospital which will be adapted from existing community sites to provide other services locally, serving as a support 'hub' to local  healthcare teams.  The services offered will vary depending on local needs and will range from bases for multidisciplinary teams to 'one-stop' centres for GP services, diagnostic and outpatient appointments.

Health outcomes: A way of measuring how well someone is doing in their treatment and recovery

HealthWatch: Healthwatch Sheffield is your local consumer watchdog for health and social care services.

High dependency unit:Treats conditions that need intensive nursing support, such as people who are ill with pneumonia or who have had major surgery

Hyper-acute stroke unit (HASU): Hospital wards that specialise in treating people who are having a stroke

I

IFR: Individual Funding Requests

Integrated Commissioning Programme (ICP): The CCG and Council will work closely together to commission genuinely integrated services in the community that support people to stay well at home and provide a rapid response to health and social crises that enable people to stay home whenever possible. 

J

Junior Doctor: Qualified medical practitioners who are working whilst engaged in postgraduate training to become a consultant or a GP.

K

Key performance indicator (KPI): Targets that are agreed between the provider and commissioner of each service, which performance can be tracked against

L

Local hospital: A type of hospital proposed in the changes.  Local hospitals will include urgent care centres which provide the services that three-quarters of people go to hospital for - such as everyday illnesses, minor injuries and long-term conditions such as diabetes or asthma. You can find out more about local hospitals in our factsheet.

Long term condition (LTC): A condition that cannot, at present, be cured but is controlled by medication and/or other treatment/therapies. 

M

Major hospital: A type of hospital proposed in the changes.  A major hospital will include full A&E, paediatrics and maternity services.

Maternal deaths: Death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of end of pregnancy, from any cause related to the pregnancy

Maternity: Relating to pregnancy, childbirth and immediately following childbirth

Minor Injuries Unit: For less serious injuries, such as sprains, cuts and grazes.

Multi-disciplinary team (MDT): Sometimes referred to as a multidisciplinary group.  These are teams of professionals from primary, community, social care and mental-health services who work together to plan a patient's care.

N

Non elective medicine: Treatment for illnesses that is not planned, including severe pneumonia, flare-ups of inflammatory bowel disease, severe asthma attacks and worsening of COPD, needing admission to hospital

Non-complex elective surgery or medicine (or both): This includes hernia repairs, knee replacements and planned gallbladder operations, usually as day cases.

O

Outpatient: A patient who attends an appointment to receive treatment without actually needing to be actually admitted to hospital unlike an inpatient.  Outpatient care can be provided by hospitals GPs and community providers and is often used to follow up after treatment or to assess for further treatment.

Outpatients and diagnostics: For people who need specialist advice or investigation in hospital.  This includes support for insulin-dependent diabetics or neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis.  It also includes minor surgery, ECGs, x-rays, ultrasounds, CT and MRI scans.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) / Healthier Communities & Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee (HCASC) and Joint Heath (JHOSC): The committee of the relevant local authority, or group of local authorities, made up of local councillors who are responsible for monitoring, and if necessary challenging, programmes such as the 'Shaping a healthier future' programme.  Parts of consultation such as the length of a consultation period, have to be agreed by them.

P

Package of care: A term used to describe a combination of services put together to meet a person's assessed healthcare needs.  It outlines the care, services and equipment a person needs to live their life in a dignified way.

Paediatric services: This refers to healthcare services for babies, children and adolescents

Patient pathway or journey: This is the term used to describe the care a patient receives from start to finish of a set timescale, in different stages.  There can be integrated care pathways which include multi-disciplinary services for patient care (see MDG above).  

Primary care: Care provided by GP practices, dental practices, community pharmacies and high street optometrists. It is many people's first (primary) point of contact with the NHS. Around 90% of patient interaction is with primary care services..

Primary care trust (PCT): PCTs were replaced by CCGs (see above) in April 2013.

Q

Quality, innovation, productivity and prevention (QIPP): The Department of Health QIPP agenda aims to achieve up to £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2015 by making sure that each pound spent is used to bring maximum benefit and quality of care to patients

S

SCH: Sheffield Children's Hospital

Secondary Care: Hospital or specialist care that a patient is referred to by their GP or other primary care provider.

Self care: Individuals, families and communities taking responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.

Sheffield Health and Wellbeing Board: Sheffield’s Health and Wellbeing Board brings together local GPs, local councillors, senior managers in the local authority and NHS, and a representative of local people through Healthwatch Sheffield.

Specialist hospital: A hospital which provides specialist care for particular conditions for example cancer or lung disease

STH: Sheffield Teaching Hospital

Stroke: A stroke is the sudden death of brain cells in a particular area due to inadequate blood flow

T

Trauma, as in major trauma centre or trauma centre: These centres treat major trauma patients who have complex injuries - either one very serious injury or a number of injuries -which make managing these these patients very challenging.  They need expert care from a large number of different specialities to give them the best chance of survival and recovery

U

Urgent care: A health problem that you think needs to be looked at by a healthcare professional within the next 24 hours NOT an injury or illness that is life-threatening.

Urgent Treatment Centre: A service that treats most injuries or illnesses that are urgent but not life threatening. This is not a service for life-threatening conditions or emergencies.

V

Value for money (VFM): A term that means best possible balance between spending less, spending well and spending wisely.

W

Walk-in Centre: Walk-in services treat minor illnesses and injuries that do not need a visit to A&E.

NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group

Headquarters
722 Prince of Wales Road
Sheffield
S9 4EU

Logo: Facebook Logo: Twitter Logo: Youtube Logo: Pinterest