NHS services in Kirklees will not balance the books in 2018/19 despite making big cuts over the past year.
The health “family” of Greater Huddersfield and North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (MYHT) and NHS provider Locala is facing “significant financial challenges.”
And finance chiefs have warned that a “robust” approach is needed if savings are to be achieved.
The bleak picture underlines the difficult 12 months to come as NHS bosses struggle to maintain services whilst making efficiency savings.
North Kirklees CCG must find savings of £8.4m this year to stay within its £277m budget. Its savings will cover admissions avoidance, planned care, medicines management, continuing healthcare and running costs. It failed to meet an “ambitious savings target” in 2017/18.
Finance director Ian Currell said that in working with MYHT and Wakefield CCG to identify system efficiencies it hopes to achieve “more financial stability.”
Greater Huddersfield CCG will have to save £7.7m to deliver its plan and meet its £335m budget. Mr Currell described the year ahead as “challenging” and that savings to be made were “significant.”
He added: “There is still much to do in order to deliver the savings target in full.”
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust must hit an efficiency savings target of £24m in the new financial year to meet a planned deficit of £19.7m. However finance chiefs warned it involved “significant risks to delivery.” Its budget stands at £511m.
Director of finance Jane Hazelgrave revealed that a proportion of planned savings in 2018/19 were via one-off schemes that meant alternatives were needed for the following year.
She added that all cost reduction schemes were assessed “to avoid any unintended impacts on patient safety and quality.”
Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust endured a “particularly challenging” year during 2017/18, managing £17.9m of planned £20m savings. With a budget of £400m it is planning for a £43.1m deficit in the coming year.
Director of finance Gary Boothby said it managed to fulfil its financial position during 2017/18 “in spite of unforeseen and unprecedented winter pressures.”
Health provider Locala suffered a shortfall against its target financial surplus for 2017/18, managing £256,000 against a plan of £370,000. Assuming it meets a “transformational savings target” of £1.53m it is planning to deliver “a small surplus” of £20,000 in 2018/19 against a budget of £69m.
Interim finance director Anna Lamplough said the company was “operating in a financially challenged arena” that required innovative changes to the way health services are provided in order to operate within the constraints of the funding it received.
At the same time as it needs to make savings of £4m in 2018/19 and £3.6m in 2019/20, Kirklees Adult Social Care faces growth/cost pressures around the number of people requiring support and increasing levels of complexity in their needs.
Concerns over sustainability have been alleviated by short-term funding but, said Strategic Director for Adults and Health Richard Parry: “The nature of this being short-term does not allow for confidence in longer term planning.”
He added that “key pressures remain” as the service moves forward.
