Concerns have been raised over the future funding of Liverpool’s troubled community services, as £4.6m is set to be withdrawn over the next two years.
Liverpool Community Health Trust is in the process of being split up after a catalogue of serious care and governance failings between 2011 and 2014, which were likened to those at Mid Staffordshire FT.
Following a procurement process, Bridgewater Community Healthcare Foundation Trust has been named preferred provider for Liverpool element of the services, after agreeing it could deliver the contract on £77m of recurrent annual funding.
But HSJ understands that Mersey Care FT, the other bidder, was firmly of the view that this level of funding would make it impossible to deliver the services safely. It believed the services required recurrent funding of £81m.
The services set to transfer to Bridgewater next financial year are being run with £77m of recurrent funding during 2016-17, along with £4.6m of non-recurrent funding.
Full story in HSJ 27 January 2017