Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees members attended the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) meeting in F Mill, Dean Clough, on Thursday 11th April. This is their report:
In response to a question from Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees about ‘overtrading‘ by Spire and BMI, the Chair Dr Brook was reluctant to read out the whole question. He did after pressure. He stated that this represents patients exercising choice to attend those providers, and that the services are provided at the same cost and same standards as the corresponding NHS services but usually with shorter waiting times. He said the CCG is not permitted to take the organisational and financial probity of the companies that tender for contracts into account in the procurement process. Dr Walsh added that the CCG does of course have responsibility for ‘due diligence and quality assurance processes’ with such companies.
CCG meeting papers are now available on the Calderdale CCG website, and will be in future, on the Friday before the meeting on the following Thursday. For the record, the appendices 1-3 which contain the key parts of the budget summary (Item 11 appendices 1-4 financial plan and budgets) are missing.
As this was the inaugural meeting of the CCG, the bulk of the meeting concerned the handover of documentation and processes from the Primary Care Trust (PCT) to the CCG. It was reported that the Letter of Authorisation from NHS England has been presented, with no conditions, for the CCG to start functioning. This is considered an achievement.
There was a formal Adoption of Policies and Procedures, Terms of Reference, the Governing Body Assurance Framework. There was a Transfer of staff, assets and liabilities, and presentation of Legacy Documents from the PCT.
The Commissioning Plan for 2013/2014 was presented, and this will lead to the production of a ‘Prospectus’ next month. This will – ‘Explain who we are, set out our priorities, set out our high level commissioning intentions, explain how we plan to spend our money, explain our business processes and timelines, and set out how the public stakeholders can respond to the above and be engaged.’
Financial Plan and Budget 2013/14 shows the CCG has £256 million for healthcare costs for the year, and £5 million for running costs of the CCG, they are aiming for a £3.8 million surplus at the end of the year (to cover anticipated restrictions in budget in future years), and they have a £2.8 million contingency fund for any unexpected costs.
10% of Calderdale NHS annual budget is lost to Private Finance Initiative repayments for Calderdale Hospital
Source: http://www.cartoonkate.co.uk/nhs-plc/
Calderdale NHS 38 Degrees comments that:
- a point to note is that the new budget is more than 25% less than the last year total of £347m, due to the reorganization and services moving to other places, so ‘administration of services’ money has gone with them
- Private Finance Initiative payments for Calderdale hospital will be £24 m this year (they increase each year) – this is now almost 10% of the new budget of £256m
- Agenda item 11 Financial plan also questions delivery of the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (productivity/cuts) target £4.0m, and this is already a reduction from the original plan to find £5.6m,
- Key financial targets for 2013/14 are:
- Delivery of Control Total – £3.8m surplus (1.5%)
- Delivery of running cost targets – £5.2m allocation (paying for the people we see at the CCG meetings et.)
Silence on the important stuff – how will the Clinical Commissioning Group commission health care services?
There is no mention, as far as I can see, of how they will decide to award their contracts or to whom. No mention of competition rules or the procurement process. There was reference to the need to make some adjustments to the constitution, which indicates it is not yet written in stone. Dr Walsh repeated his offer to meet with any interested parties.
Declaration of members interests. There appear to be 3 GPs who have external business arrangements that they feel they need to register, none of which are in fact deemed to be linked to companies that currently do business with the NHS.
Date of next public meeting – Thursday 9th May 2013
For more information about Calderdale 38 Degrees NHS, please use the contact form and we will forward comments and questions to the group.