Health cuts feared as debt grows (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Health cuts feared as debt grows

HEALTH services in the Cotswolds could be under threat as pressure is put on the local care trust to claw back a £5 million deficit.

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown fears hospital wards may have to close and other services trimmed to reduce the deficit during the next financial year.

And Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust (PCT), which is responsible for health care in the district, has already started making cuts to meet the requirements of the Department of Health.

The authority, which Mr Clifton-Brown says has been put in a 'no win' situation after inheriting the debt from a previous health authority, has stopped recruiting and employing agency staff - except in emergencies.

Training has also been put on the backburner and the trust has stopped buying items other than for clinical needs.

Mr Clifton-Brown is due to meet with the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority - the regional office of the Department of Health - to raise his concerns.

He said: "Inevitably there are going to have to be cut backs. Maybe it could be across the board or it could be one hit in Cirencester - we don't know at this stage.

"I'm not blaming the PCT for this problem - it's down to the unfortunate way it was set up.

"If the strategic health authority is determined the trust is going to have to meet this deficit, it means some services have got to be cut."

The trust was one of several in the county to be formed from the former Gloucestershire Health Authority three years ago and it inherited a debt of £5.5 million.

Thanks to a range of measures, the figure was reduced to £3.5 million but, due to additional costs and a change in the way trusts are funded by the Government, the debt will rise again to around £5 million during the next financial year.

Among the reasons for the increase are the cost of new contracts issued to consultants and GPs.

Cotswold and Vale PCT chief executive Richard James says up to £800,000 is being spent on the new, and much-criticised, GP out of hours service, which used to be down to individual surgeries but is now administered centrally by the trust.

The trust also has to award additional funds to GP surgeries based on the quality of service they deliver.

A change in the formula the Government uses to decide where its money should go has also hit local coffers.

The Cotswolds has one of the largest elderly populations in the country and the PCT used to be awarded money on that basis.

However, under the new formula, less weight is put on the age criteria and the trust gets less.

Mr James said he was confident the books could be balanced and said there were no closure plans.

But he added: "I don't think it's a critical situation at the moment but it is very serious. We're spending £5 million more than we've actually got.

"Everything we're doing is to try and prevent an effect on patients.

"Closing things doesn't necessarily save money - we've got to reduce the demand."