Organisation which oversees healthcare in Cambridgeshire labelled ‘inadequate’ by inspectors
Logo for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group - Credit: Archant
The organisation tasked with providing and funding healthcare services across Cambridgeshire has been rated as “inadequate” by NHS England.
The organisation tasked with providing and funding healthcare services across Cambridgeshire has been rated as “inadequate” by NHS England.
In a damming appraisal of its services, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was heavily criticised for its financial failings and poor performance.
The health body was one of 26 CCG’s rated “inadequate”, a further 91 “required improvement”, 82 were “good” and just 10 were “outstanding” under the new annual ratings system introduced by health secretary Jeremy Hunt last year.
The announcement is more bad news for the organisation which was recently criticised by the National Audit Office for its “lack of commercial expertise” over the collapse of an £800 million contract with the UnitingCare Partnership to provide services for older people.
The rating was based on the financial accounting period 2015/16 in which the CCG posted a deficit of £11.5 million.
Tracy Dowling, the CCG’s new chief officer, said it had been a difficult 12 months in which the organisation had faced huge challenges.
Most Read
- 1 Head of sixth form at Sir Harry Smith ‘incredibly proud’ of students' A-level results
- 2 New reservoir could secure region's water supply - but will cost over £1bn
- 3 Florida Ice Effect phenomenon could put drivers at risk
- 4 Cyclists call bicycle plates and insurance 'unenforceable and unworkable'
- 5 Students in Cambridgeshire receive ‘fantastic’ A-level results
- 6 Ramsey fire-fighters refill Horse Pond with water to save fish
- 7 Charity needs over 200 more volunteer vaccinators across Cambridgeshire
- 8 Police 'increasingly concerned' for man missing since early hours yesterday
- 9 Cambridgeshire students set to receive their A-level exam results
- 10 Obsessive stalker jailed for posting explicit photographs of his former partner
“We have dealt with a number of significant financial and contractual issues,” she said.
“The CCG has made many changes to the way it works over recent months and is working hard with staff and the governing body to deliver the quality improvements and financial rigour that we need, but there is still a lot more for us to do to address our underlying recurrent deficit. We welcome the fact that NHS England has recognised the work we have done around our integrated NHS 111/GP out-of-hours service and some of the other areas that have improved patient care.”
However, the CCG has warned that it is facing exceptional demands for services and future financial challenges would be of an unprecedented scale.
The Cambridgeshire CCG is one of the biggest in the country, with 109 practices and 824 GPs. It replaced NHS Cambridgeshire and NHS Peterborough on April 1, 2013.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have a combined population of 831,000.
