NHS Direct plans to make savings of £20 million in 2010/11 allowing money to be released back into the wider NHS. This will be done by reducing costs and improving operational efficiency whilst maintaining the high quality and availability of the service. This is not the first time NHS Direct has made considerable cost reductions. The Trust achieved £11m of cost improvements in 2009/10.
The cost improvement plan is part of NHS Direct’s business plan for 2010/11, details of which will be included in the May 2010 issue of NewsDirect. High on the agenda is improving contact centre efficiency. Plans include enhancing call forecasting and rostering methods which could save in the region of £3.3m. Work will also be carried out to reduce staff sickness levels by implementing tighter management of long-term and short-term sickness.
Operational efficiency savings include improvements to the IT systems used by the Trust and the re-negotiation of IT contracts, which could save more than £5m.
The £20m of savings sits alongside a longer-term plan to reduce management and business support costs by 30 per cent, equating to £8m, by 31st March 2011.
The funding settlement agreed with the Trust’s commissioners for the financial year 2010/11 is in total 123.3m.* The £20m cost reduction is approximately 13 per cent of the current turnover.
* The 123.3m funding agreement includes a non-recurring support of £4.5m to cover Strategic Development Plans (SDP) and Innovation; both designed to improve our efficiency, effectiveness and value to the NHS for our range of patient services.
