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Challenging times ahead for acting chief executive
THE acting chief executive of the Vale of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust has admitted she is facing one of her biggest challenges trying to balance the books.
Lynda Lake-Stewart, pictured above, spoke to The Bucks Herald at a time when she, Dr James Mapstone, acting chief executive of the Chiltern and South Bucks PCT, and Paul Bennett, chief executive of Wycombe PCT, are consulting staff across the county on plans to reduce a combined deficit of 18 million once the three organisations merge to form the new Buckinghamshire PCT in October this year.
Mrs Lake-Stewart said there was a need to reduce pay costs by seven per cent across the three pcts. The Pcts will spend a total of 35,718,475 on community healthcare services in the current financial year with a predicted budget of 33,218,182 to meet the savings target.
She said: "We cannot deliver the same with 2.5 million less and must do our best with the money we have got."
Mrs Lake-Stewart said work has also begun to try to ensure there is equality of access to services across the county, one of the main drivers behind the service redesign.
She commented: "We are trying to ensure there is the best skill mix of staff with these restrictions we have got to operate under to make sure patients get the care they need. The framework is not going to change - we have got to deliver efficient, safe services within this current financial framework. We have to get the NHS back into the black and are doing everything we can to achieve that."
Mrs Lake-Stewart sought to clarify some of the cuts revealed in The Bucks Herald two weeks ago, including the fact that the number of beds at Florence Nightingale House, the Aylesbury hospice, could be reduced by half.
She explained: "The beds are not full all of the time and the average length of stay in the hospice is six days. Average bed occupancy rates were 64 per cent in May and 54 per cent in June."
Mrs Lake-Stewart appealed to the public to understand the current situation.
She said: "We are expected to reduce the deficit to 7.1 million by the end of this financial year. Demand may mean we don't send to hospital people with varicose veins for example and we have to consider other alternatives to acute care. We are working to reduce the numbers of referrals to hospitals to save money as we currently have to pay for treatment."
Mrs Lake-Stewart said she and other senior managers at the PCT understand present public anxiety but said the service redesign was the only way to progress.
She said: "The public have to understand we do not have infinite resources and have to prioritise. Everybody is doing the best they can.
This article was first published on August 16, 2006
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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