Last updated 21:36, Thursday, 27 March 2008

CUMBRIA’S hospital managers face an uphill struggle to meet a tough new £14.2m savings target during the next financial year.

If they fail, the current board of the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust could be replaced by new management.

The trust, which runs the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, set itself the new target at its monthly board meeting on Tuesday.

They must find ways of saving £14.2m by spring next year.

Financial director Jonathan Wood said £5.8m of this was a three per cent efficiency saving target that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had told all hospital trusts they must meet in the coming year.

A further £2.4m will be lost when transitional funding to help hospitals adapt to the government’s new Payments By Results system – where the money directly follows the patient – comes to an end.

Both of these two figures must be made up by identifying savings elsewhere.

Cumbria Primary Care Trust is also working to reduce the number of referrals to acute hospitals as part of its countywide Closer to Home strategy.

It is anticipated that this will reduce the acute trust’s income by a further £6m over the financial year.

As a result, bosses need to reduce expenditure to make up for it, resulting in a total cost improvement plan of £14.2 million for 2008/09.

This compares with a target of £4m this financial year (2007/08), which the board had only this month confirmed it was going to meet.

Mr Wood said that if the trust didn’t meet its target, it could result in a management overhaul.

He said: “Financial failure should not be an option for the board. We would be looking at a regime change if we failed to deliver this in the next financial year.”

Christine Wharrier, of health union Unison, feared they would be forced to target staffing costs.

But chief executive Marie Burnham said this was not on the agenda.