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Peterborough Primary Care Trust's cash crisis worse than feared
8.40am: Peterborough's crisis-hit primary care trust has spiralled even deeper into debt than first predicted - with the latest figures showing that it is £9.6 million in the red.
8.40am: Peterborough's crisis-hit primary care trust has spiralled even deeper into debt than first predicted - with the latest figures showing that it is 9.6 million in the red.The news comes just a month after NHS Peterborough revealed that it was going to record a 7 million overspend by the end of the financial year, prompting the high profile resignation of its chief executive Angela Bailey.
The organisation, which provides GPs as well as buys other health services like hospitals for the city, was 9.6 million over budget by December 31 and if nothing is done to get a grip on finances, this could rise up to 12 million by March.
Board members are to thrash out a plan about how to claw back the debt at a hastily-convened extraordinary meeting this morning at St John's in Thorpe Road.
Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson called the situation "appalling" and branded it a "lamentable failure of strategic leadership".
He said: "They are now on probation. They need to sort out the mess they are in for the sake of patients and the people who work for the PCT.
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"There must be a belt and braces forensic audit of all the expenditure and they have to cut back on ridiculous vanity projects such as the Recognition Centre."
New chief executive appointed
FORMER chief executive of the PCT Angela Bailey, who resigned last month declaring that she "couldn't shirk responsibility" for the overspend, is to be replaced by Sheila Bremner, it has been announced.
She will be acting as interim chief executive for NHS Peterborough in addition to her current role as the chief executive of NHS Mid Essex.
Arrangements for the interim position have yet to be finalised, but Sheila will be taking up the new position from March and be around working for the PCT for six months.
Ms Bremner said: "It's a tough challenge, but I look forward to working with the Peterborough team as well as continuing with the transformational plans that we have set out in mid Essex."
Related articles:
NHS Trust chief resigns over cash shortfall, 23 January 2010.
Related links:
NHS Peterborough.
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MP for North-West Cambridgeshire Shailesh Vara said the PCT board should take immediate action to ensure that the financial situation didn't impact on front-line patients' services.
And the PCT's interim finance director Ken Sharp, who took over after finance director David Bacon left the post last month, said the road ahead was rocky.
He said: "Going forward, the position is extremely difficult. It will be a huge challenge for us.
"If we do end the year at 9.8 million, we will be faced with a double whammy because we will have to give the money back to the government but also be faced with increasing care costs. It will mean that we will have less to invest next year. It will be extremely uncomfortable."
Chairman of the PCT board Cllr Marco Cereste admitted that cash should have been better managed but vowed that they would have the books balanced by the end of March 2011.
He said: "It is disappointing and I'm extremely sorry that we have got to where we are but we, as a PCT, will now endeavour to bring everything back into balance as quickly as possible.
"We should have managed our money better. The financial control over the spending wasn't managed as well as it should have been and some of it is outside our control."
He said the deficit was caused in part by a surge in demand on services such as Accident and Emergency and they would be looking to treat more people in the community.
He said: "It's up to the public to use the health services effectively as well. It's about ensuring that people who are in A&E need to be there and diverting those that don't to the City Care Centre.
"This will make a huge difference. It's also about long-term care and looking at how to treat people better in the community to avoid treating them in hospital if they don't need to be there."
He added: "We have the beginnings of the plan to bring it back into balance by the end of March 2011.
"We will not deviate from that but these figures tend to go up before they go down.
"The public must take confidence in the fact that we will continue to provide high quality health care in the city." .
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