EU energy cut plans may cost NHS £70m

The plans could mean money being diverted away from patient care towards potentially costly building renovations, the NHS Confederation warned last night.

The EU directive could also increase the financial stress on NHS trusts in Yorkshire with health chiefs already needing to deliver savings on a scale never before achieved to prevent a financial crisis. The NHS in Yorkshire needs to make around £1.5bn in savings by 2015 and can ill afford any extra financial pressures.

Target plans have shown the biggest efficiencies will be needed in the East Riding and Hull with largely rural North Yorkshire also expected to face one of the hardest tasks as it struggles to overcome decade-long financial problems.

Last week it was also revealed that Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs hospitals in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury, has been ordered to pay £4.5m to a doctor who was hounded out of her job for deciding to have a baby.

The compensation to Eva Michalak comes on top of a need to make efficiency savings of £31m amid warnings a £14m bail-out is already needed to balance the books.

The NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the NHS, criticised the EU proposals as “too rigid and top-heavy” and said they would create an extra financial “headache”.

The Energy Efficiency Directive aims to establish a legal obligation to establish energy saving schemes in all member states and for the public sector to “lead by example”.

The EU has a target to save 20 per cent of its primary energy consumption by 2020.

However, it is estimated the EU is currently only on track to achieve half of that target.

The directive has been proposed by the European Commission in response to calls from both the European Parliament and the European Council to close the gap.

But the NHS Confederation’s European Office says the directive will have a “major impact” on the health service at a time when it is tasked with finding £20 billion in efficiency savings over the next four years.

It argues that a specific requirement of using floor space to help calculate energy reduction targets, rather than looking at buildings as a whole, would limit how NHS organisations are able to implement energy efficiency measures in their buildings.

This alone could cost the NHS more than £70m a year, it said.

Elisabetta Zanon, director of the NHS Confederation’s European Office, said: “As the NHS owns a vast and complex estate, we appreciate the need to modernise our buildings and consume energy more efficiently.

“But these EU proposals are too rigid and top-heavy.

“They will create a real headache for organisations that are already trying to find sizeable savings.

NHS Sustainable Development Unit director David Pencheon said: “An initial investment in newer heating or more efficient lighting systems can often return their original investment within three to five years.”

A vote on the issue is expected in the European Parliament tomorrow.