NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been rated ‘good’ in four out of five areas of its work, assessed in the annual NHS England annual assurance review.

The results of the latest national review of CCGs gave NHS South Sefton CCG an overall ‘requires improvement’ rating along with 90 others, reflecting the challenges facing the local NHS. 

Dr Andy Mimnagh, chair of NHS South Sefton CCG, said: “It is pleasing to see that our hard work has been recognised in nearly all of the areas assessed by NHS England but we know these are demanding times for the local NHS. We have already begun to speak with our residents and partners about the challenges that exist in south Sefton and about our plans to make services sustainable and effective for our patients.

“Demand for services is increasing, as is the cost of those services. Coupled to this, we have a higher than average number of older residents with complex health needs and we also have new responsibilities that we must pay for from our budget, which has not increased in real terms.”

NHS England’s assessment highlighted areas of good practice including the CCG meeting its financial duties, achieving referral to treatment waiting times and not exceeding targets for cases of the hospital acquired infection, C Difficile. However, the assessment recognised that a key area of challenge for the CCG in the coming 12 months will be maintaining its financial position. 

“We have to find savings of just over £10 million to meet our NHS requirement of a 1% budget surplus at the end of the financial year, so like all other public services this will mean we have some difficult decisions to make in the months ahead and the views of our local residents are vital in moving this work forward. We do feel that there are opportunities for us to make quality improvements at the same time as achieving savings, with around £5 million alone from safer prescribing processes and reducing the amount of wasted medicines.

“We know that services need to change the way they operate if they are to remain effective and efficient, so they can continue to meet the needs of our residents into the future. Our Shaping Sefton programme focuses on how, working together with our partners, we can better join up services across health and care to address this.

“Also, it’s more important than ever that we prioritise the money we are allocated effectively, to ensure that all our patients have continued access to high quality, essential health services when they need them.”

One of the sessions at the recent Big Chat event explored how the CCG might reduce the £2 million cost of wasted medicines in Sefton, which is enough to fill two and a half double decker buses. This money could be better spent on at least 79 more nurses or 539 hip replacements in Sefton.

Other sessions focused on how medical evidence can be better used to ensure resources are prioritised on those services that offer the best outcomes for patients, and how new ways of working in GP practices could enable patients to be seen by the right professional first time, allowing doctors to concentrate on those people who need their care the most.

Find out more about the CCG's Shaping Sefton programme and its Big Chat events.

You can read more about the annual assurance process on the NHS England website or visit our CCG performance page.