Clinical commissioning merger plan
A MERGER between Warrington and Halton Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) could be on the cards as health chiefs set their sights on reducing running costs.
Warrington North MP Helen Jones expressed fears over the possibility of it happening last year, however, her concerns were dismissed.
CCGs are clinically-led statutory NHS bodies responsible for the planning and commissioning of health care services for specific areas.
But uncertainty surrounds the future of many of them across the nation.
Warrington Borough Council’s health scrutiny committee discussed the issue during its Town Hall meeting on Thursday, June 13.
Dr Andrew Davies, clinical chief officer of Warrington and Halton CCGs, told members that a merger is one of the options being considered.
But he believes the move could ‘release resources’ into the health system if carried out ‘properly’.
Dr Davies said: “We got agreement from the governing bodies to work up a business case about what that would look like – and that has a merger as an option to resolve it because we need to start taking out significant amounts of expenditure and running costs.
“Just for context, running costs in Halton run at about £2.7 million, in Warrington at about £4.2 million.
“We have got to save 20% of that in real terms, across the two.
“We have to create a business case, we would have to see does that work.”
NHS England and NHS Improvement are targeting a reduction in administration costs by a further 20% by 2020-21 and have asked CCGs to deliver the same savings over the same period.
But Cllr Paul Warburton (Labour – Chapelford and Old Hall) raised concerns over the matter and told Dr Davies it seems like a merger ‘was always going to happen’.
He also highlighted that the council is democratically elected to protect Warrington residents, before stating the proposal ‘may not be in their best interests’.
Dr Davies added: “NHS England authorise CCGs and they ultimately approve the merger decision.”
In April last year, Dr Davies reassured Mrs Jones there were ‘no plans’ to merge the CCGs.