Parking application MAIDSTONE Hospital is ap- plying to Maidstone Council for 120 more parking places and is encouraging residents to write in support to the council.
Endoscopy service A NEW endoscopy unit at Maidstone means the trust has “a urology and endoscopy serv- ice to be proud of, including a high-quality bowel screening service”, according to a report.
Stroke targets met THE trust says it is meeting stroke targets, with 80% of pa- tients spending 90% of time on a stroke unit. Patients stay in the stroke ward three to five days before going to a rehabili- tation unit or returning home with a stroke package.
Staff cost concerns CONCERNS have been ex- pressed to the trust about the cost of hiring extra staff to achieve clinical performance. The trust is reviewing ways of working and sustainability.
Good report for A&E THE trust is one of the best re- gional performers for meeting the four-hour A&E wait target according to a recent report.
Parking refunds THE trust is ensuring patients delayed in clinics are offered a parking refund. Forms have been provided.
Keeping tabs on prescriptions By Dennis Fowle
A REPORT has been issued to show how local GP practices over or underspent their budg- ets for prescribingmedications in the 2012/13 year. There are four Maidstone surgeries in the top six for making savings, with Yalding the biggest overspender. The Maidstone under- spenders included College Road (£225,157), Northumber- land Road (£206.970), King Street (£192,096) and Bearsted (£168,024). The biggest overspenders
were Yalding (£168,289), Queens Road (£92,403) and Aylesford (£80,267). The table shows results for
all 62 GP practices in the new West Kent Clinical Commis- sioning Group, where the doc- tors now hold the purse strings for most of the area’s NHS spend. It covers Maidstone, Tonbridge and TunbridgeWells areas.
Answering a question posed
by the Downs Mail at the June meeting, chairman Dr Bob Bowes explained there was a formula for setting a budget for every practice, and this in- cluded the required level of more expensive drugs. He sees the role of his group
to help support practices meet their budgets, and indicated they would be looking at un- derspends as well as over- spends.
“Potentially it is a solvable problem,” he said. Dr Bowes added later: “In prescribing medication, we aim to ensure patients get the best for their condition with least risk to them, but making good use of NHS money. One way is prescribing unbranded drugs where possible, which are as clinically effective as branded drugs but significantly cheaper.
IN an attempt to restrict NHS costs, local doctors are to be monitored on hospital use by their patients. This will be done by the new GP-
led West Kent Clinical Commis- sioning Group.
There will be three focus areas:
Outpatient referrals; emergency admissions; A&E attendances. The group says: “Practices are re- quired to undertake internal re- views and meet peers to discuss outcomes, common themes and commissioning intentions.” Practices will also have to audit their use of various forms of care, including lower back pain, palpita-
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“Prescribing amounts to 14%
of our budget and GPs’ respon- sibility is to ensure this is spent wisely, to avoid eating in to money for other services. Sometimes it is difficult to work within budgets, and budget-setting methodology is not foolproof.” Of the 62 practices, 23 overspent last year. The total West Kent returns showed an underspend of £1,857,600 (2.84%) for February and £1,788,010 (2.74%) for March. The full year budget for 2012/13 topped £65m, with an underspend of 2.74%.
Helping GPs toe patient care lines
tions, heart fibrillations, falls, end- of-life care and sudden attacks of breathing difficulties. Practice achievement is to be monitored by panel members, and the group will invite practices to specify any educational or training needs to support doctors. It will also ask if patient requests
for same-day appointments are met, if clinical triage by telephone is undertaken, if open access to a clinic is available or if patients are told to telephone for a set time. The policy is to encourage as
much care as possible in GP sur- geries or near a patient’s home to avoid costly hospital admissions.
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