The 2009 budget has asked the DH to contribute £2.3 billion to the government’s £5 billion of public spending cuts in 2010-11.
The Department’s revenue budget for 2010-11 has been adjusted down from £104.6 billion to £102.3 billion.
The government believes that savings can be made through measures such as reductions in average length of stay in hospital, improved commissioning and lower costs for community services.
Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that £100 million would be brought forward from 2010-11 into 2009-10 to advance the upgrading of 600 GP surgeries to training practices, targeting funding to those areas that historically have had a lower provision of doctors.
Audrey Paterson, SoR director of professional policy, gave her initial thoughts on the announcements: “We are pleased to see continuing commitment to the NHS, but concerned about the ‘efficiency savings’ to be delivered, especially the emphasis on bed usage; reducing waste and not keeping people in hospital for longer than is necessary. This is fine, but only if people are not discharged too early in their recovery cycle, and there is excellent discharge planning to ensure that home care following discharge is sufficient.”
Another SoR concern was that the budget report did not mention the need for continued investment in diagnostic and cancer services.
“More CT and MRI facilities are required to ensure that in-patients do not wait several days for their diagnostic scans; and continuing investment in radiotherapy facilities is required to ensure, not only that all patients who would benefit from radiotherapy are able to access it, but that the latest techniques are available to them, which is far from the case at present.”
Workforce development and the need for continuing investment were also not mentioned. “We hope that the DH/NHS will not resort to its old technique of cutting back on education and training and workforce development – this would be folly,” said Audrey.
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