AN INFLUENTIAL parliamentary committee has told NHS chiefs to speed up controversial plans for health spending in East Lancashire to be cut by about £23m.

The Committee of Public Accounts said there are “huge variations” in funding between different areas of England, and pointed to a National Audit Office report which said East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has received £77 more than it should, per head of population.

MORE TOP STORIES:

MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, claimed unfair funding variations were leaving boroughs such as Corby with severe funding shortages, and called for officials to speed up the process of re-distributing NHS cash.

Blackburn with Darwen CCG has also been underfunded compared to its target allocation, and this has led to a welcome £3.9m cash boost from NHS England for 2015/16.

However, the formula used to determine the fairness of CCG allocations has come under fire from some doctors in the north of England, who say it does not give adequate weighting for deprivation and instead favours older populations.

It has previously been criticised by senior Accrington GP, Fiona Ford, who argued life-expectancy of residents served by East Lancashire CCG, which covers Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, is lower than average due to high levels of deprivation and poor health.

The CCG said in a statement: “Our position for 2015/16 is 5.2 per cent above our target allocation. It is unlikely that we will get a sudden reduction in our allocation to reflect this, rather we will receive minimal growth over a number of years until our allocation comes in line with our target.”

“We recognise the need to develop our commissioning plans with this in mind.”

The allocation for East Lancashire CCG will rise by the minimum 1.94 per cent in 2015/16, just above inflation, and in the longer term its income will gradually reduce as a proportion of total NHS spending.

Blackburn with Darwen CCG said extra funding will allow it to speed up transformation or increase the capacity of services.

NHS England has said that allocations should be adjusted gradually, to avoid instability.