HOSPITAL spending is to be slashed by a quarter in the next two years as bosses bid to plug a £30m black hole.Solihull Care Trust – which decides where NHS cash is spent – will stop or move services into the community to save more than £25m.
This ‘disinvestment’ will see 23 per cent less spent on hospitals. A total £26.4m will be pulled out of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust – with £5.6m put back.
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Procedures of ‘low priority’ and ‘limited clinical value’ will be axed while spending will be cut in services including dermatology, audiology and ophthalmology.
And ‘substantial savings’ are hoped for by having OAPs cared for more in the home rather than expensive residential homes.
The trust says the ‘significant’ savings are needed to help plug a £29m black hole and avoid a deficit of up to £20m.
It says: "Over a 2 year period, allowing for some growth in demand, this represents a recurrent reduction in acute expenditure of 23%."
Yet a trust report says it might not be enough: “There is a very high risk that a balanced year end position will not be achieved.”
It will get a £9.25m bail out from regional NHS chiefs on top of the £12m this year, which began on April 1 and runs to March 31.
It will get a ‘significant’ cash increase of £5.5m, 16 per cent, from the Government but says this will be swallowed up by an ongoing deficit and ‘new pressures’.
This includes specialised care, demand from more people using hospital services, social services and payments for residential home care for those with a health need.
It says it is ‘disappointing to once again see the level of growth pressure on specialised services’ and this is ‘clearly not sustainable’.
And it says there is a row between similar trusts and West Midlands Ambulance Service over how much the latter should get with a gap of £12m.
The Silhillian has reported major variations in ambulance response times to critically ill patients in Knowle and Dorridge.
And the foundation trust is embroiled in controversy over the downgrading of maternity services and long waiting times in A&E.
The trust report says: “Clearly, delivery of this scale of savings presents a very significant challenge.”
The authority will spend £1m, including staff, to make the changes including appointment of a ‘senior director of delivery’. It will spend about £380m this year.
To read the report download this folder and open 2010.056 Impact on Financial Position.
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