The NHS body in charge of local health care has reported a £5.6m deficit for the year with a report advising bosses to hold urgent talks with health chiefs on how to work better with organisations.
NHS Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group this week confirmed the deficit for the financial year ending 31 March 2018 this week.
The CCG also published a ‘capacity and capability review’ of the organisation this week which was completed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) over a six week period from 20 February 2018
The report contains positive comments and suggestions, many of which the CCG says have already been actioned and addressed as part of its normal end of year process.
However, the report also contains a number of criticisms and calls for the CCG and others in N0rth Yorkshire and York to work closer together to “maximise the benefits of collaboration at scale”.
It suggests one possibility is for there to be a single leadership team for the CCGs in the county.
The consultants say in the report that they have not seen an approach amongst the CCGs that “looks agile and
promotes spread of good practice”.
The report highlights the financial difficulties for the CCG caused because a large number of patients from its patch get their acute care at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.
The consultants say the CCG must collabarate more with the South Tees Hospitals trust.
The report concludes that HRW CCG bosses must hold urgent talks with NHS England bosses.
It states: “The CCGs’ leadership must urgently meet with NHS England to agree the optimum approach to ensure the
right capacity across the North Yorkshire CCGs, and how leadership should evolve to maximise the benefits of
collaboration at scale.
“This should include exploration of the potential for a single leadership team. For HRW CCG in particular, this discussion should also consider how the complexity of patient flows can be accounted for, allowing for greater collaboration across the South Tees footprint.
“(They should) determine the overall operating model for the provision of health and social care across North Yorkshire and York, allowing enabling services such as business intelligence, digital interventions, app development etc. to be commissioned once.”
The CCG says an action plan has been developed in response to the the recommendations.
Janet Probert, chief officer of the CCG said: “Whilst the report recognises our challenging financial position, it noted the positive planning for this year demonstrating that we’re making every effort to spend our finite resources as efficiently as possible.
“It also acknowledges that there is still more work for us to do in order to achieve the financial savings plan and we are fully on board with this.
“The report stated that there were examples where we’ve successfully collaborated across the system to deliver greater levels of integration and made suggestions for wider collaborative working with the other North Yorkshire CCGs and the wider Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).
“It also recognised that we are challenged with the complexity of our patient flows with around 80% of patients being treated by South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which is within a different regional footprint to the rest of North Yorkshire.
“However, they were very impressed with our locality based models of care which they said was the “most advanced in the county”; this includes initiatives such as the step-up/step-down beds.
“Clearly, the CCG is extremely disappointed that we have had to confirm an end of year deficit of £5.6m.
“Over the last year, we’ve tried to identify areas of savings that would have the least impact on patient experience whilst pushing ahead with programmes of work key to achieving our vision of care at home or as close to home as possible for our local population.
“We’re still very much committed to that vision and projects such as the redevelopment of Whitby Hospital, the sustainability of the Friarage Hospital and moving forward with the vision for an integrated care campus in Richmondshire remain a priority for the CCG.
“I am assured that the CCG has been working to maximum capacity to achieve the best possible outcome for local services.”
The CCG’s governing body will meet to formally discuss the report at a meeting on Thursday 24 May in Whitby.
There will be further discussions with partners and NHS England before any formal discussions or decisions are made.
The full report along with an action plan with available to read here. www.hambletonrichmondshireandwhitbyccg.nhs.uk/governing-body-meetings
