Blackpool doctors are appealing for understanding from local residents as the pressures facing the NHS continue to grow.



The appeal comes as NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the organisation responsible for planning and ‘buying’ local services, warns that its current financial position means it has to consider a number of decisions in order to meet savings targets and preserve the long-term stability of the local NHS.

Dr Amanda Doyle, Chief Clinical Officer at NHS Blackpool CCG said: “There is no endless pot of money and the current situation is not sustainable. As a CCG, we have a responsibility to make the best use of the resources available to us and ensure public money is spent wisely within the local healthcare system. We have to ‘live within our means’ and we need the public’s help to achieve that.”

The CCG receives around £280million each year to plan and buy services for residents. This includes GP services, community services and treatments through the hospital. Although this budget seems like a lot, when broken down it equates to around £1,630 per person in Blackpool. When you consider the average cost of care for a heart attack is approximately £2,400 and a hip replacement costs over £5,000 it becomes clear that something has to give.

As well as the increased demand on services the CCG is also faced with a requirement to make £6.4million of savings.

Dr Doyle said: “We have plans to address this financial challenge whilst still providing services of the highest quality but to do this we are going to have to make difficult decisions in order to make best use of the money available to us.”

Options which the CCG is considering are around referrals for different treatments and also around what medicines are available with a prescription.

Dr Amanda Doyle adds: “The number of people being referred by their GP for hospital procedures or operations has increased year-on-year, and is now well beyond what we can actually afford. We need to make sure that the policies and procedures we have in place for when people should and shouldn’t be referred by their GP are followed to the rule.

“We also need people to be more realistic with what they request on prescription from their GP. Low priority items such as cough and cold remedies, paracetamol and sun creams to name a few, are all readily available over the counter in supermarkets and local pharmacies. But, we actually spend around £800,000 of our budget paying for prescriptions of these items each year.

“Throughout all of our discussions and decisions we may make, we want to hear residents’ views and give them the opportunity to have their say. This is important to us.”

To find out how to get involved and have your say please visit: www.blackpoolccg.nhs.uk/yourvoice. Or, alternatively, you can contact our communications and engagement team on 01253 951349 or email communications@blackpool.nhs.uk.