THE financial black hole facing the NHS for primary care in North Yorkshire has soared, as auditors condemned a plan to claw back some of the money as “risky”.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – which took over the running of local health care provision from primary care trusts in 2013 – solely serving North Yorkshire have posted a combined deficit of £46m for the financial year ending in April.

When the GPs groups took control of the county’s budget, the deficit handed on by the PCT was £8.5m.

While the Vale of York CCG posted a £20.1m deficit, its Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby counterpart was £5.6m in the red. Harrogate and Scarborough and Ryedale CCGs recorded deficits of £12.8m and £7.5m, respectively.

Councillor Jim Clark, chairman of North Yorkshire’s scrutiny of health committee, said while the pressure on the NHS in the county continued to stem from the Government’s NHS funding formula and the county’s high elderly population, money could be saved by merging the CCGs, as has happened in neighbouring Leeds.

Cllr Clark, a retired accountant, said having numerous CCGs made cooperative work more difficult.

He added: “There is talk of more money coming to the NHS, but we want to make sure it is better spent than in the past. When the CCGs took over I told them it was unsustainable.

“In Leeds the population is higher than that of North Yorkshire and they have just one CCG.”

A report by auditors PriceWaterhouseCooper published last month into the financial position of the Hambleton CCG found its plan for the coming year was “risky with no pipeline of backup schemes” and that the CCG urgently needed to find senior stable financial leadership”.

A spokeswoman for the CCG said the auditors report had been released while it was still developing its financial recovery schemes and a new chief financial officer was set to start next week.

She said: “The work to develop a pipeline of initiatives with our partners is an ongoing process which is reported to our Governing Body for assurance.”

She added the CCG had launched a strategy, Fit 4 the Future, and numerous schemes to address the pressures of having a large elderly population.