Hospital cuts won’t affect patient safety

PENNINE Acute Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, is set to axe £36million from its budget next year.

That is on top of £43million of savings and the loss of 1,000 jobs this year.

But John Saxby, chief executive of the trust, which also runs hospitals in North Manchester, Rochdale and Bury, insisted the cutbacks will not compromise patient safety.

He said the trust was online to make £43 million of savings this year from its £560million budget, which is around 8 per cent.

He added: “We have identified and secured £38million of cost savings recurrently, and are confident we will find the final £2million.

“For example, by reducing the number of agency staff, bank and use of overtime, the trust has been able to save close to £1.5million a month. Next year, in addition to an anticipated £21million we will have to make, we have been advised by our commissioners, the local primary care trusts that they will be reducing the volume of work they send us, mainly elective procedures, by some £15million — close to a further three per cent.

“We are working through the detail of that with our colleagues in the PCTs and its implications to our services, our patients and staff. The savings we have made this year have been made with one underlying principle at their core — that we will not compromise patient safety in any way, and we will maintain that principle as we address the financial challenges ahead over the next few years.”

The trust spends around £1.5million every day on providing healthcare services. This year, it has invested £24.9million on capital programmes, maintenance and improvements, and on smaller projects to develop frontline clinical services. It has also spent £4million on medical and scientific equipment.