£50m savings needed across health service

NHS Oldham reports

SAVINGS of £50 million across health services in Oldham will have to be found over the next five years.

However, bosses at NHS Oldham have reassured patients that there will be no service cuts and there is no threat to the £400 million annual spend on services.

Instead, savings for the financial years 2010-14 will be found through better, more streamlined ways of working.

NHS Oldham is one of the region’s 10 primary care trusts told to slash spending and make savings of £950 million over the next four years. This is due to the end of increasing investment across the whole of the NHS.

Stephen Sutcliffe, executive director of finance at NHS Oldham, admitted the next four years would be a difficult time but there would be no reduction in resources.

Speaking after yesterday’s board meeting, he said: “There is no threat to the £400 million a year we have to spend on the population of Oldham.

“The money is there to invest in a full range of services. We have always been careful with money.

“It’s about making sure we have to find the money before we spend it.”

Mr Sutcliffe said the trust also faced extra demand for services in some areas, such as Oldham’s increasing ageing population.

But plans were in place to ensure patients continued to receive high quality services and value for money during the next few years.

He said: “It’s all about how do we cope with extra demand with a resource level that stays the same.

“Patients are telling us about improvements, such as do they have to go to hospital, or do they have to stay in hospital as long.

“The £50 million of efficiencies is about getting better value for money.

“It’s about looking at our resources, such as patients going less to hospital, not having the same number of follow ups in terms of clinicians, so we can better invest.”

Board members agreed to support the NHS Oldham Finance Strategy 2010-14.


More talks on stroke service

A MEETING will be held this month between local health chiefs to discuss reorganising and improving stroke services for Oldham patients.

Concerns were raised at NHS Oldham’s January board meeting about the number of stroke patients getting the right level of care.

Representatives from NHS Oldham and the Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, met to share their concerns.

A second meeting has now been scheduled to discuss plans to improve and sustain quality of stroke care at the hospital.

Speaking after the board meeting yesterday, Alan Higgins, director of public health, said there had been fluctuations of care for stroke patients but improvements were beginning to show.

He said: “We will be looking at new ways of organising the stroke services with emphasis on getting people through to effective care on the stroke unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital.”