Sustainability
I am taking a bit of risk in writing this message. The year-end returns
have yet to be processed and agreed but, possibly against the odds, NHS Halton
CCG seems to be in a good place in terms of meeting our statutory financial
duties for 2015/16. However, there is no doubt that next year, 2016/17,
will be even more of a challenge and it is likely that we will be setting out a
significant cost improvement programme for the coming year.
We will be using our Governing Body meeting on 7th April 2016
to set out the nature and scale of the challenge we face. Our Governing
Body is a meeting that is held in public and starts in the Civic Suite, Runcorn
Town Hall at 10am. We will also be using every opportunity, every contact
with the people we meet and work with to set why it is imperative to act now to
return the system to financial balance and why, if we don’t, the sustainability
of the health and care system is under threat.
This is not entirely about a burning platform, it is about intervening and
acting to restore financial balance before it is too late to do so. It is
about having a burning ambition to deliver redesign and transformation
programmes that will close the health and wellbeing gap and the care and
quality gap, which cannot be done without also addressing the finance and
efficiency gap. Transformation needs sustainability, sustainability
creates transformation opportunities. We can all play a part in delivering
both.
Simon Banks
