So, the bad news, as set out in this cambs24 item is that, whatever the politicians would have you believe, substantial cuts are coming to NHS budgets in the next few years. However, the good news, if the rest of the country follows Cambridgeshire PCT’s lead, is that spending on measures to prevent the health of people with long term conditions from deteriorating will be protected as much as possible. Read it here.
Oh, and by way of contrast, you may like to read through the just published, pre-election labour manifesto for health services – funny the Secretary of State can use the Department of Health’s Five-year plan for the NHS to do that – it’s called NHS 2010 – 2015: from good to great. There is some good aspirational stuff in there that will cheer the UK’s telecare/teleheath community (pages 32-36, for example, and Section 4 makes interesting reading) but I’m guessing that not much of it will survive if a Conservative Government is elected next Spring.
£100M cuts to NHS budget in Cambridgeshire
£100M should be easily achieved by drastically cutting Hospital and Health Center administration. Improved efficiency would also benefit cost cutting targets. Preventative treatment could also save money.
For instance, I have an annual visit to a heart specialist’s clinic to control a long standing condition and I never see the same person, they are unaware of my history, give me no “control” checks and will probably wait until I am an emergency case again before reacting! This is “After the event control”