NHS faces finding further savings in care costs

The NHS will receive an uplift in finances for 2012-13, in contrast to much of the public sector, but it will be below the levels needed to meet the costs of rising demand for care.

The Department of Health said all NHS organisations will be required for the second year running to save at least four per cent in a move which is likely to heap further pressure on hospitals which will again face a cut in amounts they are paid for services.

The announcements prompted renewed warnings the NHS would struggle to cope as it sought to cut spending at the same time as carrying out the biggest reorganisation in its history, which will see GPs take over responsibility for spending decisions from April 2013.

The austerity is likely to mean controversial changes which will mean hospitals losing key services as more care is moved to regional centres or the community.

NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson said all parts of the NHS would need to take “bold, long term measures in 2012-13 to secure sustainable change” and service change needed to be taken on by managers and clinicians.

Leeds GP Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said the plans were “more of the same” – but he predicted savings would be harder to find. “The low hanging fruit has been targeted in the last couple of years and to implement more savings without any impact on patient services is a massive challenge,” he said.