05.04.17
‘Inadequate’ CCG reports enormous deficit of £60m
A struggling CCG in England has revealed that it is in significant financial trouble, with board papers released yesterday showing its deficit stands at £61m.
Kernow CCG in Cornwall was last year rated ‘inadequate’ and has now reported that in January its deficit had risen from a reported £53.7m up to £61m.
Shockingly, the report also warned that at that time the CCG was spending £35m more than its income – which amounts to around £100,000 per day.
These revelations follow news in 2015 that an integrated care programme called ‘Living Well’ had significantly brought down the number of A&E admissions in Kernow hospitals and led to considerable savings being delivered.
However, today’s report shows that the CCG is not performing as well as previously thought. CCG leaders say that areas of particular concern include the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust (RCHT) and Continuing Health Care schemes for patients requiring regular care.
On top of this, pressure from acute activity and out-of-county mental health placements were also seen as key factors in the poor financial performance of the CCG.
A spokesperson for Kernow CCG said: “We are moving through a significant period of recovery and improvement and this is recognised and supported by NHSE locally. We have moved from delivering 1% QIPP in 15/16 to 3% in 16/17 to a planned 3.9% in 17/18 .
“We are already making significant improvements and savings across our processes for commissioning individual packages of care and have reduced spend here significantly. Also, our prescribing team has worked on a number of successful schemes to improve patient safety and reduce costs.
"Since April 2016 the team has achieved measured savings of £2.3 million, but in terms of budget savings it has reduced its overspend from £7million to £1.5million.”
“We, along with all other CCGs in the South West, are in deficit and are proactively tackling the financial challenges the local health and care system is facing. To help achieve this, the CCG submitted its financial plan to NHSE last week.”
Commenting on the mounting financial pressures that the CCG was facing, in January, NHS Kernow chairman Dr Iain Chorlton added: “Our health and care system is under extreme pressure, caused in part by high levels of demand on some services.
“Our incredible staff across all health and care services are pulling out all the stops to keep people well at home, make sure people get the care they need, avoiding the need to come into hospital wherever possible, and getting people in hospital back home as soon as we can, with the right support in place to make sure they’re not re-admitted.
“Senior leaders across the health and social care system, led by Kathy Byrne CEO of RCHT, have been working together over the last few months to put in place a range of extra capacity and support to help us maintain services.”
In 2015, NHE reported that plans to outsource £75m of NHS services in the CCG to private companies had been shelved, as leaders stated that it was “not the way forward” to improving the quality of care for patients in Cornwall.