City’s NHS debt plan ‘will fail’ Hospital Trust chairman Smith casts doubt over huge health shake-up
RADICAL plans to stop Birmingham and Solihull’s health services going massively into debt are doomed to fail, the chair of Birmingham’s biggest hospital has warned.
Council and health managers are planning changes to hospital and social care in the city, which they say are needed to prevent a £712 million healthcare budget black hole by 2021.
They include creating “a single point of access” for maternity services, suggesting maternity units at either Birmingham Women’s Hospital or Heart of England Hospital could shrink or close.
But Jacqui Smith, who chairs University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, has warned the proposals will not stop Birmingham and Solihull’s health system running out of money.
In a letter to MPs, the former Home Secretary questioned whether the plan would “resolve the financial pressures” facing health services in the region, adding: “My personal view is that, despite some unprecedented and good joint working between NHS providers, Clinical Commissioning Groups and local authorities, won’t.”
She said the ‘sustainability and tranformation plan’ (STP) was based on the hope that massive efficiency savings could be made – but health services are likely to face an £87 million-a-year shortfall.
Ms Smith said: “There are some pretty heroic assumptions made about the contribution which can be made from ensuring the greatest possible efficiencies in our organisations and in some radical work to provide more care outside acute providers.
“Despite this, million remains.”
Ms Smith represented Redditch as MP and served as a cabinet member under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
MPs say they have been told privately by local NHS managers that health services in Birmingham and Solihull are likely to be £50 million-a-year over budget, even after the planned changes.
MPs Liam Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill) and Steve McCabe (Lab Selly Oak) said in a joint state-
There are some pretty heroic assumptions made about the contribution which can be made from ensuring the greatest possible efficiencies
a gap of it £87 ment: “The city’s NHS chiefs have told us that hundreds of millions of pounds must be saved in next four years – but the savings can’t close the gap.
“In fact by 2017, the shortfall may total £40-50 million – and that’s after doctors are forced to grow waiting lists and cut eligibility for care.”
Managers in 44 areas of England have been ordered by the Government to draw up Sustainability and Transformation Plans, setting out how they will reduce costs and make efficiency savings of £22 billion nationwide.
The Government has promised an extra £10 billion for the NHS, but admits even this won’t be enough to stop services going massively over budget unless savings are made too.
One of the goals of the STP – backed by doctors and other health experts – is to improve the way the health service works in partnership with care services run by local councils.
A separate plan has been created for West Birmingham and the Black Country, as revealed in last week’s Birmingham Post.
Jacqui Smith