£50m council cuts will impact NHS, says hospital chair

A North West hospital chair has expressed concerns over council plans for a further £50m in cuts.

Warrington Hospital chair and former Conservative MP Andy Carter has written to leaders at Warrington Borough Council outlining fears that proposed cuts would have an unintended but harmful effect on the hospital's already busy emergency department.

The proposals include a further £51.2 million of cuts and savings - taking the current total savings proposed to around £90 million, and Carter highlighted adult social care stood to shoulder a significant portion of the spending reductions.

Council finance cabinet member Denis Matthews told BBC Radio Merseyside there were "risks in every decision that the council takes," but said the council would "be prepared to work with the NHS at every stage to ensure that patients and residents receive the very best possible care possible within the budgets there".

The letter from Carter - seen by the LDRS - was addressed to council leader Cllr Hans Mundry and chief executive Sarah Smith.

Carter – who wrote the letter after reading the financial plan update – said he wants to be "clear at the outset" that he does not write to oppose the programme.

"The necessity of phase two is not in question," Carter said of the further cuts.

"My concern is with one element of it.

"Of the £51.243m of phase two savings, £34m, approximately two-thirds, falls on adult social care, with an estimated staffing impact of 70 to 100 fixed-term employees.

"Adult social care is also the single greatest constraint on this trust's ability to care for Warrington residents.

"And I would not be discharging my responsibilities as chair of the NHS Trust if I did not put that on the record before cabinet meets.

"The point I would most want the council to take from this letter is that the proposed reduction in spend on adult social care will impact NHS services in an unintended way."

He added: "These delays contribute directly to some of the worst twelve-hour wait performance in the country and to patients receiving care in corridors.

"They also delay ambulance handovers, preventing crews from leaving the hospital promptly to respond to their next emergency call."

The council faces a four-year budget gap up to 2029-30, totalling £179 million, before savings.

The "staffing impact" of the further £51.2 million of cuts and savings totals more than 235 job losses, according to the Warrington Liberal Democrats.

Speaking of how the council had found itself in its current financial state, Matthews said: "All councils had their funding cut across the last 10 to 15 years and other councils took different paths.

"Some councils like Warrington tried to adopt the commercial strategy.

"That has been successful in some places, not in others."

Of the current proposals, he added: "The new budget will be brought to council in March of next year.

"That will hopefully set a pathway for our council over the next three, four years to get to a point where it's living within its means.

" And we're not relying to an exceptional financial support to do so."

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