CCGs and trusts are complacent over deficits, says watchdog

Auditors’ “red flag” warnings about financial instability in NHS and other public bodies are being met with “inadequate or complacent responses,” the financial watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the number of organisations in England with “significant weaknesses” in their arrangements for delivering value for money was “unacceptably high and increasing.”

Aymas Morse, who heads the NAO, said, “I am shocked by the persistent high level of qualified audit reports at local public bodies. A qualification is a judgment that something is seriously wrong.”

He said local and national bodies must take seriously, and act appropriately, when local auditors highlight weaknesses or concerns to maintain public confidence.

A NAO report on …