Hitting savings target could unlock £82m for health board

Alec Doyle, local democracy reporter

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board will unlock £82m of annual funding from the Welsh Government – if it can save an additional £20m before April.

Russell Caldicott, the board’s Interim Executive Director of Finance, said the Welsh Government had pledged to make this year’s £82m Strategic Support Fund payment an annual contribution to the North Wales health authority’s funding moving forward.

But the board will only unlock that funding if it can reduce its budget deficit to £20m and make £48m of cost savings by April.

Mr Caldicott revealed to the board on Thursday that it has already hit one of those targets, having reduced spending by £49.4m.

Deficit reduction

But to secure the additional funding long-term it needs to achieve both savings and deficit reduction.

Currently the board’s budget deficit is £21.4m. Based on projected spending between now and April, it will need to reduce costs by another £20m before the end of the financial year.

Failure to reach that milestone will mean mean the £82m extra funding package will not be renewed. Operations and leadership teams from across the BCUHB will be meeting over the coming weeks to establish exactly where additional savings can be made.

“Welsh Government have confirmed that if we can deliver our plans this year, the £82m can be included in the 2025/26 year and all of our future years so there’s a really big prize at the end,” he said.

“A key component was reaching £48m of savings. We’ve actually got to £49.4m as a running total. That’s really positive and there’s an awful lot of work gone on with my team and the wider organisation so a massive thanks.

“From a standing start we’ve got to a position where we’ve hit plan in terms of savings.”

Shortfall

The deficit remains the issue. While the board has stated it will achieve a £19.8m shortfall by April, in reality it currently stands at £21.4m. To secure the additional finding in the table, the board must reduce spending by £20m more this financial year.

“In order to get our deficit down to target we need to spend £20m less than planned in the next four months,” said Mr Caldicott.

“We’ve had those conversations with leadership and operational teams and they are going away to work on revised forecasts. We have a number of upcoming meetings to see how we get there and hopefully we will know by Christmas whether we can.

“If we can get there then that £82m is our and we can have start having conversations about those funds.”