Epsom Hospital Update
Budget Fiasco Could Hasten Changes
The outcome of the budget dispute between the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust and the East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey Primary Care Trust could speed up the process of change in the two local hospitals. The dispute was over a payment of £2.1m which Epsom and St Helier claimed it was owed by the Primary Care Trust. An independent arbitration panel ruled that only a small part of the money was actually owed. Chris has already had discussions with the Trust about the implications of the situation, which will mean reduced services to local people. The Trust has put out a statement warning that services on the two sites may have to be merged. "I am very worried," said Chris, "that this problem may mean that service changes are forced through for financial reasons rather than in the best interests of local patients - and I plan to keep in close contact with the Trust over the situation."
This is a copy of the statement issued by the Epsom and St Helier Trust:
The decision on the arbitration regarding the £2.15m budget gap with East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey PCT has been made. Of the £2.15m, the arbiters found in favour of Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust to the sum of £854,000 and East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey PCT to the sum of £1.269m.
NHS overspends are no longer written off at the beginning of the financial year. The money lost at arbitration will therefore have to be paid off this year. We will also have to make savings in the current year as the Trust will not receive this £1.2m for services budgeted for the forthcoming year.
This decision, coupled with the underlying financial problem of supporting increased expenditure with capital transfers, means that the Trust and it's PCT partners need to take action to provide more efficient healthcare whilst maintaining the current standard of care.
We know that there is evidence of good practice in other parts of the country where Trusts have modernised their services and achieved savings while maintaining a high standard of care and activity levels. We must modernise services and not remain attached to the old ways of providing healthcare. There are financial, as well as clinical benefits of working more closely together across a large organisation like Epsom and St Helier, and we are currently not taking advantage of these.
This will not mean the closure of either hospital but options could include looking at centralising some services at Epsom or St Helier. I realise that some patients may have to travel further for their healthcare, but I would like to strongly reassure local people that they will receive the best care from our staff and that patient safety will in no way be compromised.
I would like to ask the local community to support staff at both the hospitals so we can make these changes work in the interim before modernising our services on a much larger scale. The clinical services strategy proposes to open more local hospitals closer to people's homes and a critical care centre for the most serious illnesses. We are putting our case for the extra investment for new facilities to the government later this year.
I will be open and involve staff and local people about the measures that we will be taking and progress on our new hospitals.
John de Braux
Chief Executive
