Bosses at a North East NHS trust have spoken about financial challenges "like we probably haven't seen before".
The Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) NHS Trust has now published a document outlining its strategy from 2023 - where the trust's chair and chief executive jointly set out the stark state of affairs. In the document, they write: "We need to change. Over the years our health and care systems have become competitive, divided and in many ways disjointed.
"We have also seen funding levels slow and in some sectors decline. And the pandemic has opened great holes where there were gaps in care. And this has hit the most vulnerable in our communities harder, at the same time as the gap between rich and poor is growing."
This comes as the trust bosses reveal it is looking to make £28m in cost savings this financial year, proportionally around double the usual percentage of budget savings required. Speaking at a Governor's meeting earlier this month, CNTW chief executive James Duncan said, like the NHS as a whole, his organisation was facing a "significant challenge" this year.
Mr Duncan said: "We're facing a significant challenge. We're facing the challenge on quality, as we know, and we're facing a challenge like we probably haven't seen before, around finance, but it's really important that we do this with our strategy at the heart of that."
The trust's board chair Ken Jarrold added the savings required were "really challenging". He said: "[This is] because traditionally you would be looking for between one and two per cent cost improvement programme. So this is more than double that."
Governors heard how executives are looking to slash spending on agency staff but will, they assured, continue to recruit vital clinicians where needed. Mr Duncan, asked about how the organisation was lobbying around the impact of the cost of living crisis, also highlighted what he called "the absolute chasm" in economic wellbeing between our region and London and the South East.
The new strategy contains five ambitions - to ensure quality care, person-led care, ensure that CNTW is a "great place to work", that it works with and for communities, and that services are both "sustainable for the long term" and "innovating every day".
Mr Duncan said that, set against the tough financial backdrop and wider pressures on the NHS, sticking closely to these aims was vital. He also said it remained vital to keep quality and performance high and avoid becoming subject to Government micromanagement. He said: "It's very important that we remain in control of our destiny."
Asked by CNTW governor Annie Murphy about whether NHS bodies in the North East were lobbying on the cost of living crisis, Mr Duncan added: "You're absolutely right that what we cannot do is solve the issue of inequalities in any way. But there are things that we can do to reduce these inequalities and that is one of the key priorities for the Integrated Care Board (ICB)."
He pointed to how North East and North Cumbria ICB chief Samantha Allen had raised the issue nationally and publicly and said: "It is undoubtedly true that over the last 10 years, that gap between South and the North, particularly London, and the North East, has grown into an absolute chasm in terms of the gaps in economic well being. And that has a huge impact on health."
The trust's new strategy - titled With You In Mind - is available in full online.
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