NHS services could be cut amid £200m deficit

SOME health and care services be cut could Manchester's as Greater NHS faces dire financial struggles.

-  HELENA VESTY

Services are being reviewed as the region's NHS has been instructed to bring its spiralling finances under control. And some of 'low clinical value' may 'cease; one of Greater Manchester's health leaders has said.

The region is under high levels of scrutiny after two years of serious struggles with its finances, mental health services, and urgent and emergency care.

Greater Manchester's NHS is now in enforcement undertakings as a result, after its governing body, NHS England, 'had reasonable grounds to suspect a potential failure, or that the region's NHS 'could be at risk of failing to discharge its function.'

NHS Greater Manchester has been placed under extra scrutiny by national NHS chiefs as it stands in a more than £200m deficit, with that figure spiralling by tens of thousands of pounds a day during the last financial year. NHS Greater Manchester has also failed to provide sufficient 'provision of emergency care, meaning A&E waiting times were among the worst in the country.

Just last week, there was more alarm over the state of the region's mental health care, as its largest provider received yet another damning inspection by health watchdogs.