NHS team
take key
roles amid
financial
concerns

The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) yesterday announced four groups in North Yorkshire have been given the go-ahead to take responsibility for spending £850m in NHS cash.

But tight legal restrictions have been imposed on the Vale of York, and Scarborough and Ryedale groups amid long-standing concerns over the financial stability of the NHS in North Yorkshire.

Less draconian conditions have been imposed on the Harrogate and Rural District, and Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby CCGs.

Across North Yorkshire, the NHS faces savings of £55m in 2013-14 as highly-controversial plans are also drawn up for a major restructuring of services which will see hospital care rationalised, with hundreds of beds likely to be axed.

The financial problems will be exacerbated as all four CCGs will inherit a share of debts run up by the NHS in the county in 2012-13 estimated at around £7m.

Tough directions set out by the NHS CB chief executive Sir David Nicholson yesterday reveal the board will “oversee and supervise” the development of key plans by the two CCGs including their capacity to deliver savings and efficiencies.

Both will also require the agreement of the NHS CB before going ahead with any major decisions.

The directions, described as “intensive support”, open the way for the NHS CB to appoint its own staff or nominees to the two groups.

A NHS North Yorkshire spokesman said yesterday that the CCGs were in discussions with the NHS CB “over what support they require as part of their conditions of authorisation”.

Welcoming the authorisation, GP Mark Hayes, chief clinical officer for the Vale of York CCG, said the conditions were “reasonable in light of our current stage of development and given the history of the area, particularly in relation to finance”.

“We’re very excited about our future as a commissioner and we are keen to make a positive difference to patients and to the way our local health and social care systems work together,” the doctor added.

“We know we have challenges and we welcome the support which the commissioning board will shortly be providing us with.”

NHS CB national director for commissioning development, Dame Barbara Hakin, said: “CCGs will have wide-ranging responsibilities with regard to patient safety and will manage very large budgets so it is vital that they are robust and capable of making important decisions.

“The NHS Commissioning Board has a duty to ensure CCGs have that capability across all their responsibilities and we take that duty very seriously.”