‘Patient care hit’ to fund £113m saving

Nov 23 2007 by Audrey Barton, The Journal

HEALTH bosses in the North-East who plan to sit on £113m while one care trust wrestles with a multi-million pound debt have come under fire for damaging patient care.

The Strategic Health Authority NHS North-East is forecasting the surplus expected to be reported by primary care trusts who pay for health services from their budgets.

Health chiefs say the savings have been made by banking resources so they have cash to fall back on in “leaner years”.

But there has been criticism of the huge underspend as Northumberland Care Trust is making cuts to services as it tries to claw back a £14m debt and make £11.9m in additional savings to balance its books.

The multi million pound saving comes as new figures revealed last night that the NHS will underspend by £1.8bn in 2007/08.

Liz Twist, Unison’s regional head of health, said: “The money should be going to areas that need it like Northumberland. Clearly one of our trusts is in financial deficit and the money is there that they need to treat patients. It is important it goes to them.”

Blyth Valley MP and Health Select Committee member Ronnie Campbell also voiced concerns last night.

“A surplus like that has got to be to the detriment of patient care. Patients will have suffered but whether they have noticed or not I don’t know.”

The £113m surplus on a total £4bn budget for the region is up £41m from last year.

Director of finance and communications for NHS North-East David Stout said the surplus would not be used to bail out Northumberland Care Trust.

He questioned why a trust that lived beyond its means should have a hand out from one which had stayed within its budget.

He said the savings, gained from contingency reserves for each primary care trust apart from apart from debt-ridden Northumberland, would go back into patient care.

“Patient care has not suffered making this surplus. It was not done through cuts. This was money put to one side cautiously as there might be cost pressures which haven’t happened. It puts us in a much better position. The primary care trusts can now spend money on developments.”

PCTs in the region could only expect an estimated 5.5% increase of funding from the Government over the next two years compared to up to 10% in previous years, Mr Stout said.

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Hour's journey to doctor

A NEWCASTLE mother-of-three is backing a campaign to bring an NHS doctor to her community.

Karla Cowie, 33, of Kielder Road, Lemington, has signed a petition organised by Liberal Democrat Ron Beadle to protest about the provision of GPs in parts of the North-East.

The mother-of-three faces an hour-round-trip using public transport to take Nichola, 14, David, 10, and Kaitlyn, eight, to her nearest doctor in Newburn.

She said: “I have lived here for three years and there has never been a doctor here in that time. I have problems with my children because of that.

“It is a 15 minute walk to the bus stop, 10 minutes’ on the bus and a five minute walk at the other end.

“That is not ideal when I have a sick child. David suffers badly from asthma and has to go to the doctor quite a lot. He shouldn’t be walking far with his condition.”

She branded the lack of even one GP in Lemington a disgrace, and welcomed additional funding for more GP practices.

She said: “I have never lived anywhere else where I have not had a doctor on the door step.

“It would be fantastic. I would love to see a new GP practice built here. There is such a demand.”