HEALTH bosses in North Yorkshire have revealed they need to save twice as much money as they originally envisaged if their books are to balance.

NHS North Yorkshire and York, which commissions and funds health services in the county and city, had set itself an initial £15.425 million savings target to break even financially by next March, saying the belt-tightening exercise was necessary to allow investment in health services.

But now finance chiefs at the body, also known as a primary care trust, say a further £15 million to £20 million must be found over the next five months because of “significant financial pressures in a number of areas”.

Ways of achieving this could include looking at levels of hospital activity and asking clinicians to tighten up on the treatments they refer patients for, as well as studying the amount of unnecessary prescriptions and the cost of long-term care.

The fresh savings demands were outlined in a report which went before an NHS North Yorkshire and York board meeting yesterday.

It said ways of finding the original £15.425 million had been identified, together with extra savings totalling more than £2 million.

The report, compiled by director of finance, Nicholas Steele, and director of quality and clinical assurance Gary Hardman, also listed an action plan for finding the additional £15 million to £20 million.

“Given the size of the required level of savings and the fact there are just over five months remaining, this will be extremely challenging,” it said.

“However, every effort must be focused on delivering this outcome.”

A “performance dashboard” breakdown of the trust’s financial position, also presented at yesterday’s meeting, said: “Failure to control expenditure will result in a deficit position which is not acceptable.”

Mr Steele said: “We are reporting a break-even position at this time.

“However, we have to address significant financial pressures if we are to achieve this at the year end.

“By the end of September, we identified schemes to deliver our original planned savings figure of £15.4 million. In addition, further savings of more than £2 million have been identified.

“Under our Value for Money programme, we are working with clinicians and local NHS trusts to ensure the services we commission are effective, are based on strong clinical evidence and are delivered within our allocated budget.”

Earlier this year, NHS North Yorkshire and York announced it had finally cleared a huge debt – originally standing at £45 million – inherited from the region’s former health trusts.


Experts show way to make budgets balance

THE University of York is launching a major development programme to help senior NHS executives save money by raising quality and productivity.

The Health Strategy Forum, which is also open to private sector health executives, is designed to develop smart, evidence-informed strategies to improve quality and productivity.

The programme is aimed at helping senior NHS executives save money by raising quality and productivity, rather than resorting to across-the-board cuts in jobs and services. As part of the programme, there will be an event at Middlethorpe Hall in Bishopthorpe Road, York, on June 20, 21 and 22, directed by Dr Richard Cookson from the university’s department of social policy and social work.

A team of 20 world-leading health strategists will help the 25 delegates attending the event to adopt more analytical, evidence-informed methods to make increasingly effective use of resources.