This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
NHS financial crisis means GPs must deliver £1 million in prescription savings
It has emerged that NHS Vale of York clinical commissioning group (CCG) has set GPs the prescribing target at its latest board meeting. Managers of the Trust said they predicted an overspending of around £8 million. The news has risen after 30 GP practices in York issued a statement voicing they had no confidence in the capability of senior managers to deliver a drastic financial rescue plan.
Local GP leaders were outraged when the chief clinical officer flew out to visit hospitals in Alaska and Seattle to study alternative health care models, while frontline clinicians struggled to balance the books as part of the recovery plan.
The CCGs financial recovery plan has revealed key areas of risk, including a forecast of £7.6 million above the contracted level of activity. New measures being implicated to tackle the deficit include issuing a request that the GP prescribing lead and management teams deliver a targeted £800 thousand in further savings for 2015-16.
The CCGs report said: “This was received and identifies a further £830k of possible additional savings in 2015-16.”
The report shows that the GP Innovation Fund, designed to give practices £5 per patient to help reduce unplanned admissions, has been brought to a halt. NHS York is under pressure from NHS England to deliver a £23 million recovery plan.
According to the CCG, GP prescribing has already been identified as an area where cuts could be made after analysis revealed that there was an overspend of £1.4 million on its prescribing budget.
It said: “The CCG is not demanding cut backs, but a contribution to additional savings and efficiencies that all areas are being asked to support.
“In line with approaches taking place across the country, the CCG is working closely with member practices to optimise local prescribing and reduce waste through planned savings as part of enhancing its QIPP plan.”
Dr Andrew Field, a GP in Yorkshire, said: “In our locality there has been a recurrent failure to invest in primary care as a result of the annual scramble to find savings to meet the overspend of our ever expanding acute trust. PCGs, PCTs and now the CCG have failed to manage secondary care contracts adequately or deliver on strategies aiming to limit spending in the acute sector.
"Every year for as long as anyone can remember finance has been taken from primary care to fill the deficit. That’s why we voted no confidence in our CCG’s flawed financial recovery plan which is just another short term measure taking finance away from primary care because the Trust is more than £20 million overspent."
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