Big will be better say health chiefs

From the archive, first published Saturday 8th Oct 2005.

SWINDON residents are being reassured that their health services will not be affected by a planned reorganisation.

Swindon Primary Care Trust (PCT) is set to merge with Kennet and North Wiltshire, West Wiltshire, South Wiltshire and Bath and North East Somerset to form one large PCT.

But the focus will remain on providing excellent health services, according to Swindon PCT.

"I want to reassure residents that the proposed changes to Swindon PCT will not have an effect on patient care and services," said chief executive Jan Stubbings.

"No matter what happens in the future to NHS organisations, residents have the same health needs.

"Staff at the PCT remain focused on this and we are all committed to delivering an excellent health service for the people of Swindon and Shrivenham."

As reported in the late edition of yesterday's Advertiser Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority (SHA) wants to move from having 12 PCTs in the region to having just three to improve services and cut down on bureaucracy.

The proposal will now go to the Department of Health. It is assessing similar plans across England as part of new national Government policy.

If the department supports the proposal, patients and the public will be consulted between December and March.

This year Swindon Primary Care Trust was rewarded the maximum three stars, up from two stars last year.

That rating puts it in the top 58 of 303 trusts in the country.

Nick Westbrook, chief executive of the Health Advocacy Partnership which administers patients' forums in the region, said the forums welcomed the consultation period and that they would comment on the proposals more when more details were released.

"We need to recognise that the role of the new extended PCTs will radically change," he said.

"Delivery of most of the services is likely to be transferred to local GP practices so local patients should be in a position of receiving more localised treatment when they need it."

He added that the new PCT including Swindon will serve a population of 787,000 people with a budget of £880m.

Swindon GP Peter Swinyard, of the Phoenix Surgery, in Toothill, said the plans would see a return to a previous system of organising the health service.

He said he would have preferred Bath and North East Somerset to have been left out of Swindon's new group, due to problems with the city's Royal United Hospital.

"If you stay in the NHS long enough you see everything going round in circles, " he said. "This is yet another of those circular reorganisations."

And Dr Swinyard also warned individual PCTs' financial problems should not be carried over to the new bodies.

"I do have grave concerns that existing budget deficits will be carried over," he said.

"That sets them up to fail from day one."

Trevor Jones, the chief executive of the SHA, said it was important that NHS organisations were leaner and more cost-effective in order to free up more money for patient services.

"By streamlining the management structure of the NHS locally we are transferring more power to GPs who'll be able spend money in the way they think will benefit their patients their most," he said.

"We will save around £10m a year on bureaucracy and all of that money will be ploughed into patient care."

Anthea Millett, the chairwoman of the SHA, added that it was important to stress that the three new organisations would have a very strong local focus with clearly defined local divisions to ensure that patients in every area get equal treatment.

Two stars

BATH and North East Somerset PCT kept its two-star Government rating this year.

The trust focussed last year on ensuring people were able to see their GP within two days and improving the way people were looked after in their homes.

Other achievements included cutting waiting times for outpatient services but the PCT did not do quite so well in working to reduce the numbers of people who waited for more than four hours for treatment in the RUH's emergency department.

Closures

WEST Wiltshire PCT is closing two community hospitals in the area because of a financial crisis.

The decision to close the hospitals in Bradford on Avon and Westbury received an angry response from patients' families, local people and staff when it was made at the end of August.

The PCT, which also runs hospitals in Melksham, Trowbridge and Warminster, says the closures should save about £1m.

The trust started the year with £13.8m less than it needed and embarked on an ambitious savings plan but will still be more than £8m in the red next year.

Cash crisis

BOSSES at Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust are struggling to find all the cash savings they need to make.

The beleaguered trust has to make savings of £18.5million this year to balance its books.

A recovery plan to save money was agreed in June but the trust is still facing a potential overspend of £5.5m by the end of March.

But the trust says it has no plans to close community hospitals to find the savings needed.

Mixed report

SOUTH Wiltshire PCT had a deficit of £9.2m last year.

The trust did move up from a one-star to two-star rating but was told it needed to improve its financial management of it was to be awarded three stars in the future.

And a patient survey threw up mixed results for the PCT.

Despite scoring top marks in key areas such as screening for diabetic retinopathy, reducing death rates from cancer and circulatory diseases, and increasing the percentage of patients vaccinated against flu, the PCT's overall performance in the patient survey was poor.

Isabel Field

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