HEALTH chiefs have revealed they face a huge £155m funding gap over the next five years.
The startling shortfall was revealed as Huddersfield and Calderdale health bosses agreed to delay proposals which will see a radical shake-up of hospital services.
The NHS is expected to face a £30bn funding gap by 2020/21 which will leave Greater Huddersfield and Calderdale CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups) £155m in the hole.
The figures were revealed by NHS official Jen Mulcahy during a presentation on why the CCGs, which manage NHS services in Huddersfield and Calderdale, should delay their ‘Right Care, Right Time, Right Place’ proposal.
The plan, which could lead to the closure of a local hospital A&E department, was to be revealed and put to public consultation yesterday.
But health bosses agreed to postpone the proposal because in-debt Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT), which runs two hospitals, has not yet proved it is financially sustainable over the next five years.
They also agreed that current health spending was not sustainable.
Ms Mulcahy said: “The current system if unchanged will be neither be affordable nor safe in the future.
“Specialist services are not comprehensively delivered in both Calderdale and Huddersfield, even now.”
Ms Mulcahy added: “Hospitals have grown throughout the years of the NHS at the expense of community services, but there are many episodes of care which would be more successful if they occurred closer to home.”
Dr Steve Ollerton, Greater Huddersfield CCG clinical director, added: “The ducks will never line up and sitting and waiting for them to line up is not a model.”
Greater Huddersfield board member Irving Cobden expressed concern that the CCGs’ proposal may not be sustainable either.
Mr Cobden, a secondary care advisor, said: “We talk about our future model or care as if it’s future proof and models of care always change.
“There are things that would be unacceptable now that were once part of past models.”
CHFT, which fell into debt this year, will have another 12 weeks to devise a financial plan with government health regulator Monitor.
The trust, which manages Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hosptial, Halifax, has forecast it will end the next financial year in the red.
While the clinical section of the Right Care, Right Time, Right Place plan has been completed, details on where services will be situated have not.
Dr Ollerton said: “There is no point going to public consultation when you are not ready to consult.
“When people ask you what site something is going to be on and you don’t know, you’ve blown that consultation.”
