About Us

Specialised Services Clinical Network (SSCN)

CMCCN is a Specialised Services Clinical Network (SSCN) previously known as an Operational Delivery Networks (ODN). We are a team of health care services and professionals nationally mandated and commissioned to improve outcomes through strong clinical relationships, co-ordinating patient pathways between providers across a healthcare system.

The Cheshire and Mersey Adult Critical Care and Networks form  deliver a  large work programme determined by a national specification and in accordance with local, regional, and national priorities.

CMCCN operate in accordance with the following core principles and objectives:

• Through clinically lead collaboration, support the coordination of care pathways between regional providers to ensure consistent, equitable access to specialist resources and expertise within Adult Critical Care services. 
• Provision of impartial clinical advice and expertise to NHS England and Integrated Care System partners, including providers, to develop equitable, high standard services for patients and improve access and care outcomes.
• Facilitate comparative benchmarking, evaluation, audit, and service review to highlight any areas of unwarranted variance in quality-of-service provision, promoting consistency and standardisation of clinical service provision and adoption of best practice across all providers.
• Engaging with all relevant stakeholders to optimise patient outcomes and family experience through the efficient and effective use of collective resources available across the commissioned pathway.

National service specification for SCCN’s and the 7 Core areas of function

National service specifications have been developed for all SSCN’s which outline the deliverables expected of each SSCN, defined within seven core areas of function:

• Service Delivery – the networks role in planning and managing capacity and demand.
• Resources- the networks role in stewardship of resources across the whole pathway and minimising unwarranted variation
• Workforce: the network’s role in ensuring flexible, skilled, resilient staffing
• Quality: the network’s role in improving quality, safety experience & outcomes
• Collaboration: the network’s role in promoting working together at local, system and national level
• Transformation: the network’s role in planning sustainable services that meet the needs of all patients
• Population health: the network’s role in assessing need, improving inequalities in health, access, experience, and outcomes

Strategic objectives of Adult Critical Care Networks

The strategic objectives of the Adult Critical Care Specialised Services Network are:

• Ensuring equitable access to high quality Adult Critical Care for any patient who requires it.
• Improving outcomes for patients.
• Efficient pathways of care which demonstrate value for money.
• Sustainable and resilient services that are sufficiently resourced to respond to change.
• Transforming pathways of care to ensure timely access and egress, providing the right care to ensure positive patient outcomes.
• Collaborative working with key stakeholders to consider current and future workforce needs, defining new models of working to support service transformation and expansion.
• Continual review of education and training in line with professional standards to ensure services are fit for purpose.
• Supporting critical care services in retention and succession planning.
• Ensuring there is a comprehensive data set that is easily accessible, including sufficient detail on patient flow, demographics, case mix, and volume to support commissioning and robust data analysis to measure impact on outcomes.
• Supporting units during times of increased demand to report capacity and demand via the Directory of Service to the Adult Critical Care Dashboard and to inform local and regional decision-making on mutual aid, including transfers within and across Networks, to maintain equitable access in line with national Adult Critical Care Surge Planning guidance.
• Undertaking capacity planning and activity monitoring to ensure service capacity matches demand requirements for elective recovery programmes, with contingency plans where this cannot be achieved.
• Supporting the delivery of the national ACC work programme objectives, with outstanding workstreams deferred to the ODNs following the programme's conclusion in March 2023.
• Contributing to the national annual Adult Critical Care census (formerly stocktake), along with other national information requests as required.
• Ensuring consistent high-quality practice across all network critical care units through an ongoing programme of peer reviews and performance monitoring against national standards. 
• Monitoring and reviewing patient safety incidents across the network.

Collaboration with other SSCN’s

We work with other SSCN’s on a regular basis to ensure that patient pathways are efficient and effective ensuring the highest quality of care possible for critical care patients and their families. These are both local and regional SSCCN’s.

Other SSCN’s we work with are:

Cheshire and Mersey Major Trauma Network (CMMTN) which is our partner network within Cheshire and Mersey.

• Cheshire and Mersey Rehabilitation Network (CCRN)
• Greater Manchester Critical Care Network (GMCCN)
• Lancashire and South Cumbria Critical Care Network (LSCCCN)
• Northwest Paediatric Critical Care, Long term Ventilation and Surgery in Children Network
• North West Kidney Network
• NW Burns Network