The Save/Support Bridlington Hospital Campaign Group run by: Mick Pilling (chairman) is very concerned about the latest news! We are urging the people & resident of East Yorkshire to be Very Vigilant over the next few years as the Primary Care Trust try every method possible to save vast amounts of money in the peoples NHS; the one we have all paid over the years, reflected in your taxes.
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07th June, 2006
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Hospitals in East Yorkshire are to make savings of £31m over the next two years in a bid to balance the books.
And senior managers said they hoped the move would help them reach foundation trust status, which will allow them to manage their own finances rather than being instructed by the Government.
But unions and health professionals fear the saving will be made through widespread job losses.
And GP's say they could become dumping grounds for patients taken out of hospitals due to a shortage of resources.
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill and Princess Royal hospitals, was £12.3m in deficit at the end of the last financial year in April.
It blamed the pressures of meeting Government waiting list targets, the use of costly private care to treat patients, new pay deals for hospital consultants and a surge in the number of patients.
To tackle the deficit, last year it announced up to 300 jobs would be lost through "natural wastage" and further savings would be made by reducing the use of agency and other temporary staff.
But managers now hope to clear that deficit and make further savings of £18m by 2008.
Already, the trust has identified where £22m can be saved. This includes a partial recruitment freeze, reducing overtime and cutting the number of agency staff it uses.
An accountancy team from Price-Waterhouse-Coopers is investigating where the final £9m can be made to reach the £31m target.
Today Terry Cunliffe, lead officer for health for the Amicus union in Yorkshire, said: "We are extremely concerned about what is happening in the NHS in this area.
"These are cuts, whatever the trusts calls them, and the inevitability is we will lose jobs.
"One of the consequences of Government waiting list targets getting shorter is that trusts already in deficit are having to use private healthcare to meet targets, which costs more."
Stephen Greep, trust chief executive, reassured patients and staff.
He said: "We are no different to any other NHS organisation and the scale of improvement we propose should be enough to move us back into financial balance.
"It is important to be in balance to get all the money for capital investment plans and eventually all organisations must be in balance to become foundation trusts."
Dr Andrew Green, chairman of the Local Medical Committee for East Yorkshire, said: "The fear among GPs is that they are going to be used as a dumping ground for people taken out of hospitals, without the resources to deal with it.
"The amount of money the trust is talking about is absolutely enormous.
"Although it says it is intending to do this without impacting on patient care, I think it's unrealistic to think that's the case.
"I don't think there's any way of savings being made without impacting on patient care."
A Department of Health spokesman for the said: "We are reassured that the trust is taking commonsense measures to reduce its total deficit.
"Improving financial management does not mean compromising services for patients."
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