THE NHS body responsible for closing community hospital beds in East Devon is spending £41,400 a month on “developing leadership capabilities,” it has been alleged this week.

A letter has been sent to the NHS Northern Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group by the East Devon Group of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

The letter, dated December 1st, to Mrs Angela Pedder, the Lead Chief Executive of the CCG’s Success Regime, asked her to confirm that the CCG had instructed Carnall Farrar Ltd to undertake the work.

The letter, signed by the chairman and vice-chairman of the East Devon Group CPRE, Dr Margaret Hall, and Mr T.J.W. Hale, also questioned the impartiality of Dame Ruth Carnall, who is chairman of the Success Regime but also a director and shareholder of Carnall Farrar Ltd.

“This would appear to be a clear conflict of interest, affecting all parties, which alone could be sufficient to justify a judicial review of the outcome of this consultation,” said the letter.

The letter goes on to say that to overcome this difficulty it would be appropriate for Dame Ruth to resign as chairman and for Carnall Farrar Ltd’s contract to be terminated.

The Success Regime was set up as one of three areas in the UK where there were deep rooted financial problems in delivering health services.

It was introduced in Devon following a forecast of a £40 million deficit for 2014-15 increasing to £87 million in 2015-16 (see below).

The letter from the East Devon Group CPRE was also sent to East Devon MPs Neil Parish and Sir Hugo Swire.

Mr Parish commented: “It is vital the CCG gets the best value possible when spending taxpayers’ money.

“At a time when the CCG are consulting on closing community hospital beds across East Devon, they should be spending as little as possible on consultancy fees and ploughing as much money as possible into frontline care.”

Sir Hugo declined to comment until he had the opportunity to study the letter.

We have sought a response from the CCG but they failed to meet our deadline. We asked them to confirm the following:

• That the monthly consultancy fee is £41,400?
• How long has that monthly fee been paid?
• How long will the monthly fee be paid?
• Is there a conflict of interest with Dame Ruth Carnall chairing the Devon Success Regime when he is a shareholder and director of Carnall Farrar Ltd, the company which was awarded the contract?

We will be pleased to print the CCG’s responses to these questions in our next issue and on our website as soon as they are received.