Wolverhampton hospital goes into debt after £2m funding for nurses taken away

The CCG, which dishes out NHS cash to health services across Wolverhampton, is in dire straits financially and desperately needs to claw money back.

With the two health bodies at loggerheads an independent arbitration hearing was held to decide what happened to the cash.

Chief executive David Loughton said it was the first time in his career he had been forced to get involved in an arbitration hearing.

But he assured staff that their jobs were safe and that hospital reserves would be used to make up the shortfall.

The CCG labelled the outcome as 'challenging'.

It had earmarked £4m for New Cross but wanted to withdraw the money as it bids to save £37m over the next five years.

Half of the £4m was to go towards New Cross' plans for full seven-day working and a host of supervisory ward nurses, as recommended in the Francis Report.

The other half was to fund an extra 135 nurses - who have already been hired by New Cross - to meet requirements again from the Francis Report but also to meet standards set by the Care Quality Commission.

The arbitration hearing sided in favour of New Cross for seven-day working and supervisory ward nurses, and in favour of the CCG for the extra 135 nurses, meaning £2m of hospital cash was withdrawn.

Mr Loughton said of the latter decision: "I'm very disappointed.

"We are now in deficit because of this. The fact that the situation got to this stage is also disappointing.

"It's the first time I've ever been to arbitration in my career.

"The CCG said they can't afford it. We'll now get into further discussions with them, but I've absolutely no plans to reduce staffing.

"We are however very pleased that the seven-day working funding has been made permanent."

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has embarked on a recruitment drive in recent years having previously received confirmation from the CCG that the required funding would be recurrent.

Earlier this year the CCG revealed plans for a raft of cuts to 'non-essential' services, including an Age UK transport service for vulnerable people, a community ultrasound service and support groups for people with mental illnesses.

A spokeswoman for the organisation said of the dispute with the hospital: "Following arbitration, a ruling has been made that allocates £2m to each organisation.

"We recognise that this is a challenging outcome and we will continue to work with the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust to deliver the best possible health services for the people of Wolverhampton, within the resources that are available to us."

It comes as the hospital funds a new £38m Emergency Centre, including a badly-needed new A&E unit, which will open in November.