Some NHS services could be cut as Greater Manchester told to bring spiralling finances under control

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

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’.

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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.

The ‘enforcement undertakings’ agreed by NHS Greater Manchester means it now must develop a financial plan aiming to get it back to ‘an underlying break-even financial position’ by 2026/27. They also mean NHS Greater Manchester must make ‘a significant improvement in performance and backlog reduction for elective care services’, and ‘a sustained and