A London clinical commissioning group is considering whether it should refuse to make more primary care quality, innovation, productivity and prevention savings demanded by NHS England by the end of the year.

  • NHS England requests £13.2m in further primary care QIPP savings from London CCGs by the end of 2015-16
  • Kingston CCG deputy chair: “If we take that money out of primary care the system will collapse”
  • NHS Clinical Commissioners warns move would “significantly risk existing investments”

The national body wrote to CCGs in the capital last week requesting £13.2m in further QIPP savings in primary care by the end of 2015-16.

NHS England told London commissioners that it had not met its own targets for taking £15m in QIPP savings out of primary care in the region.

Phil Moore, deputy chair of Kingston CCG and a board member of NHS Clinical Commissioners, asked whether the capital’s CCGs should refuse to produce the further savings.

London streets

London commissioners have been asked for £13.2m in further primary care QIPP savings

Speaking at the Commissioning in Healthcare show in London last week, Dr Moore said: “We had a letter from NHS England saying, ‘Ah, we forgot to tell you we had to take £15m QIPP out of primary care this year… We only found just over a million – the rest is down to you guys’.

“[There’s an] outstanding requirement of £13.2m to find in the rest of this year.”

Showing the letter to the audience, Dr Moore said: “Do we actually… take our power [as CCGs] and go back to NHS England and tell them where to put their QIPP… and say, ‘You’ve got to find that money somewhere else. If we take that money out of primary care your system will collapse’?”

Steve Kell, co-chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners said: “I recognise the need to balance budgets but to do so in this way is short sighted and is the wrong direction for the NHS.

“The request from NHS England for the London CCGs to find more than £13m of QIPP savings in year will significantly risk existing investments they are making to enhance services for patients and transform out of hospital care, helping to reduce the pressure on hospitals.

“The Five Year Forward View sets out a clear commitment to strengthen primary care and general practice as the bedrock of a secure and sustainable NHS.

“We have to work together to balance the books across the whole system not take from one part of the system to plug gaps in another. Any further pressure on primary care budgets will only further destabilise the whole of the NHS.”

An NHS England spokeswoman said: “We are working with CCGs to address the QIPP challenge for primary care in 2015-16. We want to learn from CCGs about schemes that have worked for them so that we can share best practice across London and secure financial sustainability.”

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