To receive presentations on CCG Recovery Plans.
Minutes:
Simon Whitehouse, Chief Executive of South Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) attended the meeting to provide a recovery plan update.
In July 2016 Simon had reported on a proposed financial recovery and improvement plan for Central Cheshire which included the CCG’s for South Cheshire Vale Royal.
By 2020/21 Central Cheshire would face a combined financial deficit of £90.5 million. Currently over half of the budget would be spent on hospital services. Other services included mental health, community services, prescribing and continuing health care (CHC).
South Cheshire CCG was currently in the process of consulting with GP’s, consultants and the public about the future of service delivery.
Simon reminded the committee of the ongoing work at the sub-regional level in response to the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) which was aimed at:
· clearly planning for the future including support for GP practises,
· reducing waste in prescribing (e.g. repeat prescriptions),
· evaluating corporate and management costs and ensuring the right level of care is in place for CHC.
In response to the presentation the committee questioned Simon about duplications in all areas of the health service, whilst acknowledging that the current system was complex, difficult, not easy to navigate and had built in delays.
The overarching issue was the scale of the financial gap which required the CCG to consider reducing waste across the whole of commissioned services.
One particular area highlighted to illustrate inefficiency related to paper records. CCG’s were working with hospitals to introduce electronic storage of records. The cost of paper notes was inefficient and caused delays and blockages for patients if not all the records were in one place.
Jerry Hawker, Chief Executive of Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) attended the meeting to provide a recovery plan update.
Eastern Cheshire shared a similar geographical area and size of population with South Cheshire. Eastern Cheshire CCG received a total income of £274.6million. To illustrate the level of financial pressure currently faced by the CCG, Jerry explained that the budget for the current financial year was expected to show a deficit of £15.2million of which £3.4million had been agreed with NHS England.
The main areas of expenditure for Eastern Cheshire CCG were:
· over 50% of its overall budget to Hospital Services between East Cheshire Trust, South Manchester (University Hospital), Stepping Hill and North Staffordshire;
· prescribing medicines;
· CHC which included funded nursing support (FNS), mental health care and community health services; and
· £4.2million CCG operating costs, 80% attributed to staff costs.
Jerry highlighted three specific areas of activity:
· where the CCG had successfully delivered: prescription of Primary Care medicines, non recurrent investment in services, contractual efficiencies, reduced hospital activity and reduced CCG operating costs. This combined area of work has recovered £6.16million.
· where savings had not accrued against the plan: CHC, FNS, a lower reduction in hospital care activity and slow progression on system transformation.
· where costs had exceeded the plan: CHC, FNC cost of living, disproportionate costs against the reduction of hospital care activity and the cost of recommissioning Stroke services.
RESOLVED-
(a) That the presentations be noted and Simon and Jerry be thanked for their attendance and contributions.