News and press releases

Date of issue: 05 October 2010

NHS London Statement on bringing forward management cost savings in London

At this week's NHS London Operating Group it was agreed that the NHS in London should release resources sooner than expected to help set up GP commissioning consortia. Although legislation still has to be agreed by parliament to set up consortia, it makes sense to plan ahead. This is going to affect PCTs and Sectors. London's 31 PCTs will now move forward plans to integrate their management teams building on the six sectors already established earlier this year.

This will reduce management duplication and concentrate expertise needed so London maintains a firm grip on its finances and performance of the health service for the benefit of patients. Therefore the NHS will be bringing forward £50m of savings originally earmarked for 2012/13 to 2011/12, making a total of £180m over two years. While this will have an impact on Sectors and PCTs the decision over how this will affect the SHA has not yet been decided.

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Notes to editors:

1. Please see linked letter from Ruth Carnall, CE of NHS London, to Local Authorities in London

Additional Supporting Statements

Date of issue: 05 October 2010

An NHS London spokesperson said:

"With the amount of management cost reductions currently required, London's 31 PCTs would become too small to do their job. Bringing our PCTs together will combine expertise and keep a tight grip of NHS performance in London.

This is about reinvesting back in the NHS which is planned to be run by GPs in the future and not by managers. By acting now, high quality leaders would be retained, but overall executive pay spend could be dramatically cut. PCTs would share single executive teams, and other back-office functions such as finance, HR and admin support would be shared to strip out duplication.

We have a duty to provide safe patient care and we are determined to make sure the NHS is London is in good health before handing it over to GPs when the time is right."

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Notes to editors:

1. For more information contact Daniel Pople in the NHS London communications team on 0207 932 3911. Out of office hours, please call 0844 822 2888 and ask for pager number LON01.
2. The proposal to bring forward £50m of savings originally earmarked for 2012/13 to 2011/12, making a total of £180m over two years was agreed by the Chief Executives of all six commissioning sectors in London as well as the Strategic Health Authority.

Date of issue: 04 October 2010

An NHS London spokesperson said:

“The NHS in London is sensibly planning ahead while we wait for the White Paper to be considered by parliament and the public consultation is completed. To do this we are proposing releasing up to £50m a year earlier than we'd planned to support GP commissioning. This is a challenging task and we need to ensure we have staff with the right skills in place so we can hit the ground running. It will strip out duplication where it exists and reinvest that money in supporting GPs in their proposed new role. This will ensure performance is not allowed to slip and that the finances of the NHS in London remain in balance.”

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Notes to editors

1. For more information contact Daniel Pople in the NHS London communications team on 0207 932 3911. Out of office hours, please call 0844 822 2888 and ask for pager number LON01.
2. The NHS in London is planning for GP consortia to take over commissioning care on behalf of patients as identified in the Health White Paper. Although the White Paper still has to be agreed by parliament, it makes sense that we plan ahead. Therefore it is proposed to bring forward £50m of savings originally earmarked for 2012/13 to 2011/12, making a total of £180m over two years. London's 31 PCTs will integrate their management teams building on six sectors already established last year. This will reduce management duplication and concentrate expertise needed so London maintains a firm grip on its finances and performance of the health service for the benefit of patients.
3. The plan is to take out 54 per cent of management costs. We are still establishing what this will mean to the number of posts. However, the faster we can do this, the fewer posts we will have to take out next year. We are putting support in place for staff to help them through those changes.
4. Discussions with staff and unions will take place from October.