CTORS Greater Manchester NHS plunged into 'special measures' over £180m debt

STAFF BRIEFING REVEALS 'ENFORCEMENT UNDERTAKINGS'

- HELENA VESTY

GREATER Manchester's NHS is being plunged into 'special measures, according to a staff briefing, the M.E.N. can reveal.

Greater Manchester's health and care services, including the region's NHS, have already been forced to massively cut an overspend of £400m over the last year.

Accounting consultants were brought in to carry out a 'financial turnaround programme' under intense scrutiny from national NHS bosses. However, the system remains in hundreds of millions of pounds of debt with a deficit of £180m. A staff briefing from NHS Greater Manchester, seen by the M.E.N. yesterday, says that it has 'not yet been able to demonstrate to NHS England (NHSE) that we, as a system, have made the progress required against our well-publicised performance, finance and quality issues. The city-region's NHS will now have to go under yet more scrutiny from its national governor, NHS England.

NHS Greater Manchester is being put on a 'system improvement plan, involving a set of 'formalised agreed actions' to be 'delivered within a specific (yet to be determined) timeframe!'