Last updated 15:57, Wednesday, 26 March 2008

HOSPITAL bosses face an uphill struggle if they are to meet a tough new £14.2 million savings target during the next financial year.

And if they fail, the current board of the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust could be axed and replaced by new management.

As a result, bosses are calling on staff to help them identify areas where financial savings can be made.

The trust, which runs Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital, set itself the new target at its monthly board meeting yesterday.

It means they must find ways of saving a massive £14.2 million by spring 2009.

Financial director Jonathan Wood explained that this figure has been reached for three different reasons.

Part of it – £5.8 million – is the three per cent efficiency saving target that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told all hospital trusts they must meet in the coming year.

A further £2.4 million will be lost when transitional funding to help hospitals adapt to the government’s new Payments By Results system – where the money directly follows the patient – comes to an end. Both of these two figures must be made up by identifying savings elsewhere.

Finally, Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT) is currently working to reduce the number of referrals to acute hospitals as part of its countywide Closer to Home strategy.

It is anticipated that this will reduce the acute trust’s income by a further £6 million over the financial year.

As a result, bosses also need reduce expenditure to make up for it, resulting in a total cost improvement plan of £14.2 million for 2008/09.

This compares to a target of £4 million this financial year (2007/08), which the board has only this month confirmed it is going to meet.

Chief operating officer Kevin Clarkson said they have identified further potential savings, but the key will be putting them into practice.

As a result he said it was essential that all hospital staff, from management right down to ground level, work together to make it happen.

He told the board: “It’s very important that, if it is going to be a rough ride, we have the staff on board.”

Mr Wood explained that if the trust doesn’t meet its target, it could be labelled failing – potentially resulting in a management overhaul.

The bottom line is that failure would see the trust’s current bid for foundation status in tatters.

Christine Wharrier, of health union Unison, told bosses she feared they would be forced to target staffing costs in order to make such massive savings.

But chief executive Marie Burnham said this was not on the agenda.