Doncaster health bosses must give back over £1 million to the NHS

The money will be paid back to NHS England because the borough needed less than it originally expected for spending prescriptions.

Doncaster NHS Clinical Commissioning Group’s board of governors were told at their March meeting that the CCG which commissions healthcare in the borough, was showing a surplus of £3million against its target but it is now expected that at least £1.4 million of that will be clawed back by NHSE and bosses were awaiting more clarification.

The money relates to unpredictability because of Covid and Brexit, the board heard.

Hayley Tingle, chief finance officer, said: “In relation to prescribing, the CCG was prudent in its assessment of the costs at month six 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 November the actual costs are lower than expected and it is felt that this will continue to the end of the year. NHSE have now advised that the prescribing variance will be clawed back and this is expected to be confirmed for Month 11. This will therefore reduce the £3m positive variance.”

She added there was also £900,000 that the CCG no longer needed for service developments that was no longer required, and it had not yet been confirmed if that would need to be paid back. She told the meeting that it was money related to duplication over cash for the borough’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health service.

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