THE chief executive of the body that delivers healthcare across mid and south Essex has warned the service is financially unsustainable without fundamental change reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
It comes as the mid and south Essex integrated care system – which delivers hospital, mental health, social care, community and voluntary services – battles ongoing deficit problems.
The integrated care system chief executive Tom Abel said the integrated care system had a nationally negotiated and agreed plan position for 2024/25 of £96m deficit. That was adjusted to breakeven after NHS England provided Deficit Allocation Funding of £96m.
However by November it was £31.2m in deficit against a breakeven position, even though this was an improvement on the position the month before which was £32.2m off plan.
Mr Abel told the Health Overview Policy and Scrutiny Committee the deficit came after high care costs from the first half of the year.
The care system says its plan is considered “very stretching” for 2024/25 but imperative to”build a strong foundation for financial recovery over the medium term”.
Tom Abel told the committee: “What is clear is we have a health system in that part of the world that is is fundamentally not financially sustainable and has not been for some time.
“So far we can go with waste in terms of end productivity and things like that and the next step on that journey is going to have to be In two parts.
“One is going to have to be what is deliverable with the resources that we have but the second is how we are going to have to change the way services work more fundamentally to reduce reliance and hospital services which is the most expensive component of care.”
He said there are changes that can make big differences – for example of Essex particularly the south west of the county where diabetes is relatively poor managing the condition early on can avoid large expenses later.
He said: “We also need to focus on those things that we know we can do to help support people particularly with long-term conditions to live healthier better lives so we can reduce that reliance over the coming week years if we don’t do that we are just not going to be able to get the system onto a more financial stable footing and with my limited understanding governments financial position so we are going to have to change how we work.”
