Health bosses have second try at forming single Shropshire CCG

There had been plans to dissolve both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin clinical commissioning groups to form the new organisation next spring.

But health commissioners were told that their application had been turned down last month because it was “not strong enough at this stage to proceed in this timescale”.

David Evans, joint accountable officer for both organisations, told a meeting of Shropshire CCG’s governing body on Wednesday that work was continuing to bring the two organisations at an operational level together.

He said: “We will be proceeding with the management of change for executives and staff over the coming months.”

He told the meeting that although the application was turned down by NHS England, a number of strengths were recognised and it was thought another application could be submitted in April next year. Mr Evans said: “Having received the letter from NHS England/Improvement they recognise a number of strengths in the application, and they felt that actually it was just the timing issue in terms of we were fairly late to the party, so to speak, and therefore we just didn’t have enough time to put a strong enough application forward.

“But clearly we were strong in a number of areas with work to do in others.

“They have also indicated to us that they feel that we could probably put an application in before next September.

Advantage

“We have got a meeting with them next week to begin to look at a timeline on that.

“Internally we think April is probably realistic in terms of putting a further application in. The advantage of that is we would know fairly early in the next financial year whether we have been successful or whether there is more work to do.”

It comes as Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs need to make cuts of 20 per cent to running costs to save £1.2 million.

Health bosses say the creation of a single body is to support the ambition of the NHS Long Term Plan, however the proposals have been met with controversy.

Last month the plans received only ‘limited support’ from the region’s health scrutiny committee.

Members of Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Council’s joint health overview and scrutiny committee were asked to Indicate their level of support for the proposals.

In response, Councillor Karen Calder, committee co-chair, said: “It’s clear we can only say at this moment that it’s limited.

“It does still feel like a work in progress. We would ask you to return with more information and assurances around the risks we have identified.”