Shropshire health chief: Patient care shouldn't be hit in cost cutting measures

Dr Julian Povey said any actions taken by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group to address its financial problems should not have an impact on front-line care provided to patients.

He made the claim after the CCG was placed into special measures amid forecasts of a £10.6 million annual deficit.

It means the group, which buys in services for hospitals and GP surgeries in the county, will receive help from external experts to try and tackle the black hole in its finances.

The CCG has identified more than 40 areas where it can achieve efficiencies – and worryingly for some, it includes areas such as hip and knee replacements and reducing paediatric admissions.

Concerns were today raised after the organisation responsible for healthcare in Shropshire was placed in special measures.

Healthcare campaigners have been giving their reaction to the news that Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group will receive help from external experts.

Gill George, from the campaign group Shropshire Defend Our NHS, said it was "incredibly bad news".

She said: "This means NHS bureaucrats crawling all over our local healthcare and demanding deeper and deeper cuts.

"We've already got the disgraceful plans to close one of our A&Es. The cuts that are being looked at now will be much, much worse even than these. These cuts will be devastating.

"The problem is that there just isn't enough money going into Shropshire's NHS.

"NHS England actively discriminates against rural areas and areas with an older population – and that's why we've got these deficits in the local NHS.

"It's not because we've got too much healthcare. It's very urgent that Shropshire's MPs wake up to the scale of the threat here, and pitch in for their constituents.

"We don't need more cuts. We need equitable funding for Shropshire – and we're certainly not getting that just now.

"Our supporters were out petitioning and leafleting on Saturday, in Shrewsbury and Ludlow.

"We spoke to many hundreds of people. None of them wanted to lose an A&E and none of them wanted NHS cuts."

But Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, said NHS England's decision to place Shropshire's health commissioning body in special measures is "probably the right thing to do given that there's no senior management team". He is calling for new management to put the services in a stronger position.

Mr Dunne said: "It is disappointing that Shropshire CCG's finances have not been sufficiently well managed and, as a result of a large anticipated annual budget deficit, it has been placed in special measures.

But Dr Povey, clinical director of performance and contracting at the CCG, when asked if the measures would have any impact on front-line patient care, replied: "Hopefully not.

"As a board one of our main duties is to maintain high quality patient care and we will be striving to continue to do that.

"We want to improve the patient pathway, rather than making it worse."

Dr Povey, who has been a GP in Shropshire since 1994 and a partner at Pontesbury Medical Practice in Shrewsbury for 16 years, sought to explain the reason for the deficit.

The CCG had forecast it would be more than £3 million in the black by next April.

"It is because of some of our planning and business management," Dr Povey said.

"Last year we had a surplus of £3.6 million, but we borrowed money from providers and other commissioners to achieve that.

"Our plans this year were to post a £3.6 million surplus again, but for a number of reasons that has not happened.

"We have had to pay back some of the money earlier than planned, we have had contractual challenges with different providers and some of the arguments we were hoping to win, we haven't been able to do so."