A NEW NHS trust which cares for the mentally ill and many vulnerable elderly people will have to shave millions of pounds off its budget every year.
The new Health and Care NHS Trust was only formed on July 1 and bosses have already been told to make substantial multi-million savings as part of a national programme of savings.
The trust, which has a budget of £155 million a year and employs 4,186 staff has to make four per cent efficiency savings or £6 million a year.
However, because the trust is also expected to become a foundation trust in 2013, Monitor, the foundation trust watchdog, is expecting the organisation to plan for even tougher savings of six per cent or £9 million per year.
Foundation trusts are NHS trusts which have greater freedom from central Government to spend their money to meet the specific local needs of patients.
They are also intended to be more representative as the directors are accountable to a public membership who appoint governors to speak on their behalf.
As previously reported, the new trust is responsible for a huge range of services across Worcestershire, including managing the county’s five community hospitals in Malvern, Pershore, Evesham, Tenbury and Bromsgrove, managing mental health services such as the Elgar Unit in Worcester, dental care, sexual health, prison healthcare, district nursing and physiotherapy.
It will be responsible for services across 120 different sites countywide.
Sarah Dugan, chief executive of the new trust, told health watchdog HOSC at County Hall on Tuesday: “We don’t want to be just good enough. We really want to excel.”
Simon Trickett, director of strategy and business development at the new trust, said because primary care trusts like NHS Worcestershire would no longer exist after 2013 it looked as though the new trust would inherit its assets.
He also said it was necessary to “sweat” these assets to get the most possible use out of them and make sure they were being used at the optimum level of efficiency.
Andy Roberts, chairman of HOSC, asked if mental health would be forgotten about in the new, larger trust.
Ms Dugan said: “I don’t believe mental health will get lost at all. There are a lot of mental health clients who are quite engaged to make sure mental health services are a priority.”
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