HEALTH chiefs are appealing to members of the public to come up with money saving ideas to help them close an anticipated £61million funding gap in their finances.
The call comes from the board charged with putting in place the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
They say that if they carry on providing services at their current level they will overspend by £229million.
And even if they make all the efficiency savings they’re expected to, there will still be a funding shortfall of £61million.
“If we do everything we are expected to in terms of efficiency savings, if we deliver all that we will still have a gap of around £61million,” said Sarah Dugan, chief executive of Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and the lead on the STP.
“So we are still looking for ideas, we will be going out to public consultation with the draft plan, asking the people ‘ does this feel right?’ what suggestions have you got and what else can we do?’ “
She was speaking after a special meeting of HealthWatch Worcestershire into the STP in which members of the public were able to quiz the leading figures behind the document which will shape health services in the county for the next five years.
She told the meeting that rising demands on the NHS was a national issue but said Worcestershire had its own profile within that, for instance between 2015 and 2031 it was expected there would be a 41 per cent growth in people over 65 and a doubling of those over 85 with long term health conditions.
She admitted there was a difficulty in recruiting staff and that: “Services are not as joined up as well as they might be and there is too much time spent treating illnesses rather than preventing them.”
The STP would aim to address these issues and put a greater emphasis on primary care by providing more care at home, more care through local GPs and the community and by providing access to the right service at the first time of asking.
THE draft STP aims to:
Embed prevention in everything by promoting self care, to avoid illness and to encourage children to get active to enable people to live longer, healthier and happier independent lives.
The draft document is expected to go out to health professionals in the region by the end of November before being rolled out to the general public.
