Asking questions about the collapse of the UnitingCare contract for older people across Cambridge

I  spent yesterday afternoon sitting in as a member of the public at the governing body of the Clinical commissioning Group - this is the organisation that runs the health service across Cambridgeshire. As a member of the county health committee I quizzed the CCG before Christmas and I wanted to know more about the ending of the UnitingCare contract which was handed back to the commissioners just before Xmas after having only been running for a few months. The contract was worth £800m and was to provide care for older people. The contract was won by a public sector group led by Addenbrookes, so this wasn't the private sector walking away from their commitments.

It seems that the impact on the CCG's budget of this contract failure is worse than expected, and they have gone from predicting a surplus of £4m to a deficit of £8.4m at least. I asked the question where does that money come from and what does it mean for our local health economy. BBC Look East interviewed me afterwards.

My own view is that alarm bells should have started ringing when the big private sector bidders dropped out, as the role that Addenbrookes were taking on was that of a system integrator, and that is a very tough, commercial job, and possibly not one that a hospital, however clincially excellent it may be - can just pick up and run with. Also, as we know, Addenbrookes had its own problems to content with.

It was a sobering meeting.