The man overseeing a radical plan to ward off a funding crisis in Camden, Haringey and Barnet’s health services has said a solution has “not yet been found” – but the Whittington’s properties could be part of discussions.
David Stout, director of the North Central London Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), told councillors from the three boroughs – along with others from Enfield and Islington – that he did not know how to ward off an impending £876million health budget deficit.
The five boroughs have been forced to come together to devise a plan to dramatically improve health and social care finances, with one potential move being the “consolidating” of departments across the Whittington, Royal Free and University College hospitals.
Questioned by the cross-council Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee in Hendon Town Hall on Friday, Mr Stout said: “If we do nothing, the gap in our finances would grow to something like £900m in five years.
“But we’re not going to do nothing – we wouldn’t be allowed to do nothing.”
He added: “A solution to that scale of financial gap has not yet been found – we still need to do more work on that.”
Mr Stout also said investment was essential to the future of the health service but stressed “costs could be reduced” and efficiencies implemented.
Full story in Ham & High, 29 November 2016