Doncaster health bosses may have to repay £2m back to Government

Finance bosses have revealed that the Doncaster NHS Clinical Commissioning Group had a surplus of over £3m, partially as a result of efficiency savings.

But Hayley Tingle, chief finance officer, told the group's February governors' meeting it was possible that the Government would seek to claw back some of the money.

She said: “In terms of prescribing, we’ve got a £2m surplus.

"Because of the volatile nature of this year, and because there is always a three month delay in receiving up to date forecasts, figures have come in much lower than expected."

She said they had not seen an impact of Brexit and prescribing costs continued to be lower than forecast.

“The governing body should note that there is a potential of clawback.”

She said the group had declared £2m but now also had £1.2m hospital discharge money taking the total surplus to around £3m. There was also a surplus in Service Development Funding of £900,000.

Her report stated: “The CCG was prudent in its assessment of the prescribing costs at month 6 due to the fluctuating and volatile spend incurred up to the end of July. Now the actual data has been received up to the end of October the actual costs are lower than expected and it is felt that this will continue to the end of the year.

She added: “For both these items NHSE (NHS England) had indicated that there could be clawback of unspent funds and that this would be kept under close review, the CCG therefore felt it was appropriate to notify NHSE of these underspends should they wish to claw this funding back as the CCG does not require it. If NHSE claw back this funding, then the CCG will be on target to deliver the £1.3m deficit target as per planning."

Governor Dr Emyr Jones told the meeting although he understood there were needs nationally, he thought it would be a good incentive to NHS organisations to make efficiency savings if they were allowed to keep the money saved.

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