Mayor Dave: Price of CCG's Financial Failings Must not be Paid by Patients

Responding to to the latest developments in the sorry saga of the finances of the body which is responsible for commissioning NHS services locally, Mayor Dave Hodgson said it would be a 'travesty' if local patients were forced to pay the price of Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group's financial failings in the form of reduced services. He also slammed the BCCG for the resources it has dedicated to an unjustifiable review which has sought to downgrade local hospital services, while its own finances were spirallIng out of control.

Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group has been issued with formal 'directions' from the Head of NHS England after it was revealed that its financial deficit is even greater than previously estimated, at £43.2 million. The BCCG has also revealed that it is now restating its accounts for 2013/14, because over one year on from the end of that financial year it now recognises that £12.7 million of the £43.2 million deficit occurred in that year.

Commenting, Mayor Dave Hodgson said: "The scale of the deficit which has snowballed under the CCG is truly shocking. Also shocking is the fact that it is only now recognising what happened in its budget for the year before last, and is having to re-state its accounts.

"The CCG has spent a vast amount of time, money and energy on pursuing a downgrade plan for Bedford and Milton Keynes Hispital that is totally unnecessary and unjustifiable, on the pretext of 'sustainability.' Meanwhile a mind-bogglingly massive deficit has been run up by the CCG itself, with the organisation having shown no evidence before now that it is capable of, or willing to, truly get to grips with the situation.

"The govermment reform which created CCGs was intended as a means of localising decisions in healthcare, yet with this government intervention we have ended up with a NHS England having to issue orders from afar. It's a dire situation.

"The CCG's interim accountable officer has said that bringing the deficit down and balancing the books is 'not about cutting services'. We will hold him to that, because it really would be a travesty if local patients were made to pay for the CCG's own financial failings over the last two years."