PCT Welcomes 3 Year Funding
09/02/05
Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Primary Care Trust today welcomed news of a 19.4% increase in its funding for NHS services for 2006/07 - 2007/08 - adding to the 9.7% increase (£12.5m) for the coming financial year 2005/06.
Overall the PCT's baseline budget - which is used to support improvements in health and health services within communities and through surgeries, community services and hospitals - will increase from £166.3m in 2005/06 to £198.6m in 2007/08.
Caroline Fowles, Chief Executive of the Primary Care Trust said: "This is a significant further cash increase for the NHS locally - coming on top of the extra £22m received over 2003/04 and 2004/05. We recognise that the allocations are fairer than ever before with higher increases going to those areas of greatest health need. This announcement takes us closer to our fair share of the national budget. It will take our spend to £1,223 per head of population - just below the national average of £1,388".
"Knowing what we have to spend over the next 3 years is clearly very helpful. Before 2003/04, we had to plan on a year to year basis. We can now work, alongside our partners, to look in-depth at the needs of local residents and at current services and plan for change and development over a longer timescale".
Caroline Fowles went on to set out some of the PCT's priorities:
"We are ambitious in our plans to help local residents to improve their health and to improve local healthcare services. We have been very successful, with support from our partners, in meeting key targets and standards over the last 3 years - often ahead of national timescales. Overall local residents enjoy better than average health and receive high quality local services. However, some of our residents have very poor health and we need to sustain our efforts to reduce inequalities in the PCT area. We still have some key targets to deliver for 2005/06 not least in the further development of local mental health services".
"We also face some new, very challenging targets through to 2008. These include achieving further reductions in deaths due to cancer, heart disease and suicide through active prevention programmes, improvements in child health, providing better home/community based support for patients with long term health conditions (eg respiratory and heart disease, asthma and mental health), and further reductions in waiting times (down to a total wait time of 18 weeks from referral to treatment) alongside providing local residents with more choice about where to have their hospital care".
"We need to respond to these new targets and to other local priorities - such as continued development of support services for older people and improvements in access to NHS dentistry - by looking carefully at where we need to spend new money. We must also look at how we can improve our use of existing budgets. Local clinicians and social care staff, supported by patients and carers, have already done much to look at how we can develop services for the benefit of patients such as enhancing the range of community based services provided closer to home."
"This change is important as much of the new funds will be required to meet existing commitments such as funding for new pay arrangements for staff (under Agenda for Change), new contracts for GPs, costs of inflation, the growing range of drug treatments and technical advances in care"
"We look forward to receiving the further detail which lies behind these headline allocations so that we can make informed judgements about its best use. As ever we do not underestimate the challenge of meeting expectations upon us".
Year 2006-7 Allocation £181m
Year 2007-8 Allocation £198.6m
Total % increase over 2 years 19.4%
Total increase over 2 years £32.3
