Exclusive: Special measures for Shropshire's NHS as health services group £10.6 million in red

Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group will receive help from external experts who will work with the senior management team to tackle the deficit.

It is the latest blow for the CCG in recent months. The Future Fit programme outlining the reorganisation of health services in the county has been put on hold, and the CCG's accountable officer Dr Caron Morton, one of the leading figures for the Future Fit programme, was placed on authorised leave in late September.

The CCG is the umbrella group that controls the NHS in Shropshire and decides where and how services are delivered. It lists "financial sustainability" among its five key aims.

The development has no impact on Telford & Wrekin CCG, which looks after health services in the east of the county.

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said he would be raising the issue further with Government figures and added that it was vital that lessons were learned.

CCG officials in Shropshire have worked with NHS England over several months to develop plans that will help improve the group's financial position.

The work identified the CCG's need for specialist support, and the organisation has decided to bring in a specialist team to work alongside its governing body to help it to achieve a sustainable financial position.

In a statement, CCG chairwoman Helen Herritty and acting accountable officer Brigid Stacey said: "We have already made some changes and improvements to the way we work to address the challenging financial situation.

"We have also identified over 40 specific areas of work where we can achieve greater efficiency and have begun to see improvements as a result of these schemes.

"These include a piece of work which looks at optimising how medicines are prescribed right across the county and implementing an integrated model of 'end of life' care.

"It also includes the development and further roll-out of the Care Homes Advanced Scheme (CHAS), which aims to reduce admissions to main hospitals and reduce the need for emergency (A&E or ambulance) care."

Mr Kawczynski said: "I am deeply concerned about the lack of financial planning management and accountability shown by the leaders of our CCG and their failure in these areas has made it sadly inevitable that these special measures needed to be taken.

"On the one hand I think it is very concerning and there will be a lot of disquiet that a national body is having to come in and sort this out, but on the other hand I am very pleased that national operators will be coming in to try and set the CCG on a better financial footing.

"We have been pressing the leaders of the CCG for tighter management of their budget for some time so it is very disappointing that they have allowed it to spin out of control in this way."

He added: "We cannot come back to this scenario again. Lessons have to be learned."