YOUR editorial (Move is smoke and mirrors to make group seem prudent, May 21), implies that some deal has been done behind the scenes to write off our predicted overspend and that this has involved an additional call on the public purse. This is simply not true and we believe your readers need a better explanation.

Every year we are given £650m to spend on health services for local people. How we spend this is dictated by nationally set pricing and accounting rules, on demand for services and on agreements with providers of healthcare (who also receive income from other sources).

We knew the year would be challenging because of the significant increase we have seen in demands for services. There were also several factors which could not have been predicted in advance and which shifted our financial position. These are in the public domain and were explained in the article.

Firstly, our end of year agreement with the Oxford University Hospitals in March meant that they agreed not to be paid for all of the increased demand on their services during the year at the nationally set rates. It is quite common for commissioners of services and those providing them to come to such an agreement towards the end of the financial year and for overspending to be shared between both. Neither has a secret pot of money and both have a responsibility for managing demand and ensuring efficiency. The trust finished the year with a £10.87m surplus.

Secondly, some very recent national technical changes in the way in which payment is made for maternity services has resulted in a reduced call on our finances. Thirdly, NHS England agreed that we did not need to reimburse them for some cancer screening costs. Finally, we underspent on our IT budget and were given permission to keep the underspend.

None of these very welcome developments could have been predicted in advance. None will mean a higher call on taxpayers’ money, nor affect local services. Indeed the reverse is true – had we not reached some of these agreements, we would have had less to spend on local healthcare during this coming year, as the rules mean any deficit would have had to be repaid. While we will continue to have financial challenges during the year, our position is a lot stronger than if that had been the case. The careful work of our finance team to secure these developments for local people should be congratulated and not condemned.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about how we manage our finances, our governing body meetings take place in public. The next is at 9am tomorrow in Jubilee House, John Smith Drive, Oxford Business Park South, OX4 2LH. All the papers including our finance report are on our website: http://www.oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk/about-us/how-we-work/board-meetings/

IAN WILSON, Interim Chief Executive, NHS Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, John Smith Drive, Oxford Business Park, South Cowley, Oxford

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