NHS debt in Shropshire could slip further into the red
A £4 million cash boost has been given to the group which buys health services for people in Shropshire – but its £59.7m deficit is at risk of slipping further into the red this year.
The money was allocated to Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group by NHS England to address a 'number of specific unfunded cost pressures', a report to its governance board said.
The CCG is aiming to end the financial year with a deficit of no more than £13.3 million and will get a financial reprieve if it meets this target.
If it hits this amount, a commissioner sustainability fund will offset the debt incurred in 2018/19.
The CCG previously qualified to write off £1.33m of its debt, but missed out on a further £3.3m after failing to quality for the second quarter of the year.
However, it could still achieve the full financial reprieve if it hits its control target at the end of March.
Claire Skidmore, chief finance officer for Shropshire CCG, said the organisation was forecasting to achieve the target after fully using reserves and contingency, and fully mitigating identified risks.
However, she said it is more likely that the CCG will fall short by about £3m.
Likely
In a report to the CCG's governance board, she said: "The CCG is expected to deliver a control total of £13.3m deficit in 2018/19 and in doing so meet all of the ‘business rules’ for CCGs (except for achieving a surplus of one per cent).
"However, we believe at this stage that the most likely out-turn for the full year is that we may risk falling short by around £3m.
"This position recognises significant operational constraints and limited time to address the issues we have identified over the remainder of the year."
She said the CCG had been working to mitigate risks identified in previous months, and continues to do so.
Figures in the report show that in the worst case scenario the CCG predicts it would end the financial year with a deficit of £16.57m, accounting for the money already received from the commissioner sustainability fund.
However, it says the figure will most likely be £14.97m, which would have been £16.3m had the CCG not qualified for the first instalment of the support fund.
The group already has an historic deficit of £59.67m, brought forward from previous years.
The report outlined the latest figures available for the organisation's finances and covered the period to the end of November.
