EXTENDING waiting times, cutting the use of agency staff, postponing courses and not filling non- essential vacancies are on a list of emergency measures to be taken by local health chiefs, who have to find savings of more than £3 million by April. The Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT) has announced that it is taking extra action to achieve its financial target to break even by the end of the financial year. It is currently predicting an overspend of £3.4 million at the end of the year, despite previously drawing up an action plan to save cash. The previous action plan included the closure of Milford Hospital, something which is now out of the question before the end of the financial year. However this, on top of other predicted savings not being realised, has still left the PCT with £3.4 million to find to prevent an overspend - something which it is not allowed by the government to do. At a recent board meeting, the PCT announced its list of new measures which it hopes will save enough cash. This includes reducing the use of London hospitals for care that could be provided locally, encouraging local GPs to make use of rapid assessment as an alternative to sending patients to accident and emergency units. Waiting times are also likely to be extended after board members agreed not to treat patients who had been waiting for elective treatment less than six months, unless there was a clear clinical reason for treating them earlier. The trust, which looks after community services and runs the borough's community hospitals, has also planned a list of "internal savings" it can make. These include putting a freeze on non-essential, non-clinical vacancies until April 1 and restrictionss on the use of agency staff without affecting patient safety. The PCT is also continuing to encourage staff to make savings in other ways such as postponing any attendance on staff courses until April, reducing the cost of staff travel through initiatives such as car sharing and a reduction in mobile phone use at work. New clinical placements will also be deferred until April and then only approved if they are based on clinical need. "We are implementing these extra measures now as we need to dramatically improve our current financial performance if we are to meet our statutory duty," chief executive Liz Slinn explained. "Caring for patients remains our prime concern and huge efforts are being made by staff to reduce our spending and make savings that will help us to bring our current overspend back into line with the budget available to us. "A forecast deficit of around £3 million at this late stage of the year, however, gives us very little room for manoeuvre. "The PCT board has stressed that its statutory responsibility to break even is of paramount importance, and it has instructed me to stop all expenditure immediately, unless it would impinge on our other key performance targets or clinical safety." News of the new cuts has greeted in Waverley with concern. The prospective parliamentary candidates for South West Surrey, Lib Dem Simon Cordon and Tory Jeremy Hunt have both criticised the savings as well as blamed the government for under-spending in the county. "This could well mean operations being cancelled," Mr Cordon warned. "I'm very concerned as well that essential staff vacancies will not be filled. "Of course the PCT must manage its finances well but it's about time it started telling the government that the level of funding is just not good enough. "Instead, the PCT obediently says it will go ahead with the cuts. It should be standing up for our local health needs, not cutting services." Mr Hunt was equally concerned about the impact of the cost-cutting exercise. "They have to make a huge saving in a very short space of time," he said. "It would take Houdini to get them out of this one. "The worry is that some people may not end up getting the treatment they need because of the urgency with which these savings are having to be implemented. "I know that the board will make every endeavour to prevent this happening. "I also know that people in Waverley will be wondering what on earth has happened to all Gordon Brown's supposed largesse? We're suffering badly in Surrey."
