NHS England orders Shropshire CCG to sort its financial deficit
NHS England bosses have given Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, the organisation that commissions health services in Shropshire, legal directions to address its financial problems.
NHS England bosses have given Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, the organisation that commissions health services in Shropshire, legal directions to address its financial problems.
NHS England has been working with NHS Shropshire CCG to strengthen its governance and leadership, and to address its financial deficit. In 2015/16 the Trust ended the year with an in year deficit of £14.75 million and carries forward a recurrent deficit of £20.2 million.
To ensure Shropshire CCG fulfils its duties NHS England (under its statutory name of the NHS Commissioning Board) today formally issued it with “Directions”.
The trust has now been ordered to produce a credible financial recovery plan which is to be approved by the NHS England board ,with the figures subject to independent scrutiny. Other directions from NHS England include greater oversight of managerial appointments, including Accountable Officer for Shropshire CCG and appointment of a Turnaround Director.
In response to the Directions, and the unsuccessful recruitment to the Accountable Officer vacancy, Mr David Evans, Accountable Officer, NHS Telford and Wrekin CCG has been appointed as the substantive Accountable Officer for both NHS Shropshire and NHS Telford and Wrekin CCGs.
Although both groups will remain as separate statutory organisations with their own Governing Bodies. NHS England has authorised Mr Evans to review and develop a joint management team to support both organisations over the coming weeks.
In a statement from Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group regarding the move they said: “Although this may create initial uncertainty, the long term benefits of having a joint team will maximise use of resources, commissioning capacity and expertise to ensure that we continue to commission high quality services for the patients of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.“
Dr Julian Povey, Chair NHS Shropshire CCG, commented that he welcomed the opportunity to work with Mr David Evans, and Dr Jo Leahy the new Chair at NHS Telford and Wrekin to continue to commission safe, sustainable health services now and in the future. Dr Michael Innes, outgoing Chair of NHS Telford and Wrekin recognised the challenges that Shropshire CCG faced and acknowledged the mutual benefits of having shared management capacity and expertise to ensure both CCGs effectively discharge their statutory functions.
Although Daniel Kawcynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, welcomed today’s announcement that NHS England have taken the highest action possible, he said that matters had spiralled out of control.
He responded: "Over the last year, I have become increasingly concerned that the CCG may not have been fulfilling basic statutory requirements; I have had numerous meetings with officials both on a national and regional level in which reassurances have been given that all issues were being addressed. In reality we have seen matters spiral out of control as the group has failed to deal with their budget deficits and management of the Future Fit programme.”
He will also pursue an intervention from the Secretary of State for Health adding: “Clearly the decision taken last year to place Shropshire CCG in special measures has not addressed the issues and NHS England continue to have grave concerns across the breadth of the Group’s operations. I share those concerns and will be making strong representation to the Secretary of State for Health to seek his personal intervention in trying to get us back on track to secure the best possible services for future generations.”
South Shropshire MP Philip Dunne said the NHS oversight of Shropshire CCG must help restore confidence in the management of the trust and develop a clinically robust and viable plan for the future of healthcare commissioning in the county.
He thinks not enough had been done and welcomed Mr Evans appointment: “In our regular meetings of Shropshire MPs and the CCG we heard encouraging talk of progress, but this wasn’t being backed up by performance. I have made calls for changes to the Board and welcome the appointment of Dave Evans, the Accountable Officer for Telford CCG, to lead an integrated management team for both commissioning groups.
He added: "There are several issues facing healthcare in Shropshire right now. We need a competent dedicated management team prepared to make decisions to ensure we have quality viable health provision for the whole of Shropshire."
Nurse staffing problems have been just one of the reasons behind the figures with more agency staff brought in. Agency staff employed within the Trust grew in the 2015/16 financial year. Increased agency staff meant that the levels of premiums paid for such staff increased to £870,000.
