A “FUNDAMENTAL shift” in how the county’s NHS cash is spent will see services based on quality not quantity, bosses say.

The new body responsible for 65 per cent of NHS spending plans to introduce “outcomes-based commissioning” which, it says, will improve quality of care.

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) decides which provider, such as NHS hospitals, should get cash.

Until now payment has been given based on the number of procedures or consultations carried out, such as hip operations.

But it is now moving towards a system where providers will only be paid if work carried out meets strict quality standards.

In the next year it will negotiate contracts this way for maternity, frail elderly services and mental health. Other areas will follow.

The strategy is a major priority for the OCCG, which replaced the NHS Oxfordshire primary care trust (PCT) on April 1 as part of a national shake-up to get GPs more involved.

Associate director of strategy and governance Catherine Mountford said: “It is a fundamental shift. It is absolutely turning around the focus on the way that we commission.”

It is hoped the change will get the NHS to work more closely with other public services, like social services.

For example, maternity will be measured on issues like the rate of smoking in pregnancy, caesarean sections and postnatal care rather than just the figures.

Mrs Mountford said: “They will be measured on what they do and deliver.”

This will be vital for the frail elderly service, which is taking on Oxfordshire’s massive bed-blocking problem, where OAPs cannot leave hospital despite being well enough to, because of problems organising ongoing care.

Early plans for mental health outcomes include users getting into work, stable housing and early diagnoses of dementia.

The three service areas will come under the contracts in the 12 months from April 1, 2014.

Bosses plan to spend the same amount – £297.1m – on the three service areas out of their total £650m, but it is hoped greater efficiency under the new system will save £6m to £9m a year.

David Agnew, of mental health charity Oxfordshire Mind, which provides a wellbeing service for OCCG, supports the shift, saying the new system will provide evidence that the charity’s services make an impact.