RESIDENTS have been told to brace themselves for up to £13 million worth of health care cuts.

It is not clear yet which services will be affected in the region, but it has been confirmed that one area where funding will ‘have to’ be reduced is at Leighton Hospital.

NHS England has rated Vale Royal Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which provides health care in Northwich, as ‘requires improvement’, largely due to its forecasted overspend for 2016/17 of £5million.

Neighbouring CCG, South Cheshire CCG, was rated ‘inadequate’ and is forecast to overspend by £8million. Both CCGs work together collectively as Central Cheshire CCGs.

Simon Whitehouse, chief executive of the Central Cheshire CCGs has spoken out to warn the public that changes to health care are imminent and it is ‘going to bite’.

Mr Whitehouse said: “The rating reflects the very difficult financial challenge we have found ourselves facing.

“We have rising demand for services and are allocated significantly less money per head of population than elsewhere in Cheshire.

“We are having to go through a period of reviewing the services we provide and make some difficult decisions.

“This is going to bite locally. Some changes people will start to see quite quickly, in terms of what is prescribed because we are looking at stopping our GPs prescribing medication that can be bought over the counter, like pain killers. Other services will take longer to be affected because we are entering a period of consultation.

“We want to have an open and honest conversation with local people, engaging with them at every step of our journey towards financial balance.”

Central Cheshire CCGs, have already appointed a turnaround director and begun working on an action plan.

The plans will undergo further scrutiny from NHS England on all elements of financial planning.

Mr Whitehouse said it is too early to say which services will be affected but said part of the problem is that most of the money goes to Leighton Hospital and the hospital is offering services that South Cheshire CCG ‘simply cannot afford.’ “Most of the money we receive is spent on Leighton Hospital,” said Mr Whitehouse.

“What we have got to do going forward is reduce the amount going there. We are offering services at Leighton Hospital that we simply cannot afford to offer. The most expensive place to look after patients is in hospital, so we have to change where we look after people.

“The CCGs want to work with the public but ultimately we are going to have to make difficult decisions.”