Shropshire Star

'Appalling' ruling to put Telford health chiefs £3 million in red, says doctor

A ruling which is set to plunge Telford & Wrekin's health chiefs more than £3 million into the red is "appalling", according to one local doctor.

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The borough's Clinical Commissioning Group, which buys health services for the people of Telford & Wrekin, last week lost an arbitration hearing to settle a contract dispute with the trust which runs Shropshire's two main hospitals.

Chief operating officer David Evans told the CCG board yesterday that the ruling meant the organisation was now about £3.2 million short of its budget for the current financial year.

GP board member Dr Jo Leahy said: "I am biased but it's hard to believe that was anything like a fair judgement if all reasonable evidence was considered.

"I think that's appalling."

The adjudication panel decided that the CCG had to pay the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust more than it felt was fair for this financial year.

The two sides had been locked in a contract battle over a number of issues, including how treatments were costed and whether the CCG should pay for rehabilitation services at the Princess Royal Hospital which it claimed the trust was not providing.

Mr Evans told the board that there was little detail in the letter giving the adjudication but that the CCG chief finance officer, Andrew Nash, would be meeting the area team of NHS England later this month and would probably find out more.

Mr Evans said: "The letter is quite clear that there is no right of appeal and no right of clarification. All we know is that the panel found in favour of the trust."

He said the CCG was now in a formal "recovery position" and discussions were already taking place about how the group could balance the books.

If the CCG ends this year with a deficit, the amount it has to spend on services next year would be reduced.

Geoff Braden, a lay member of the group, asked what implications the decision would have for the wider "health economy" of both Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire as a whole.

Mr Nash said: "It will have an impact on all organisations in the health system but it's a double whammy.

"If we were to post a deficit next year our resources would decrease by the amount of the deficit which would have a knock-on effect on our ability to deliver services."

Mr Evans added: "I believe we are in a health economy overall that has a financial problem. In effect, what's happened by this decision is that the deficit has passed from the provider to the commissioner.

"I do believe that the health economy has to jointly own the scale of the problem and come up with a solution that gets us to a position where we are not constantly trying to move money from the provider to the commissioner or vice versa."

Board lay member Dylan Harrison said: "This has placed us in a very difficult position. We are already finding it very difficult to reach a break-even budget for the year and are already considering cuts to services so the impact is difficult."

He asked whether there was potential for financial support from elsewhere in the NHS but Mr Nash said he was expecting to be told that the CCG would have to balance the budget itself.

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