Full story at HSJ 13 April 2018
Commissioners have been left with a £15m bill after losing a dispute with their local acute trust over procedures they said had been costed wrongly.
The four east Kent clinical commissioning groups and East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust had gone to arbitration over a large amount of elective and emergency work the CCGs felt had been misreported and “upcoded”.
The trust and CCGs went to arbitration over elective and emergency work costs. The dispute went to “expert determination” – where a dispute is resolved by an outside figure paid for by the trust and commissioners.
Trust board papers said the CCGs estimated work valued at as much as £30m-40m could be involved, though the trust felt the amounts involved were far less. Work done for the CCGs to the end of January was above the planned contract value but only by £7.7m, according to the trust’s financial report.