"Too many" patients being referred (From This Is Wiltshire)

"Too many" patients being referred

5:31pm Thursday 21st August 2008 in

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WILTSHIRE Primary Care Trust hopes to break even at the end of the year but is concerned at the increasing number of referrals of patients to hospitals.

The trust has clawed back an overspend of £479,000 it incurred in the first month of this financial year by not filling vacancies and other savings.

But John Williams, the director of finance, said on Tuesday there was a sharp rise in GPs referring patients to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, Great Western Hospital in Swindon and Salisbury District Hospital.

He said: "July's figures do not look good. The activity figures show the trend for referrals are continuing to get worse for us."

He said the three hospitals had told the trust they were seeing more patients than planned to try to get ahead before the winter when typically they experience an increase in emergency cases.

Mr Williams said the rise in referrals was the same across the country as hospitals try to meet new national waiting time targets of 13 weeks.

He said: "We don't want GPs to stop referring people but we would encourage them to manage patients in a community setting."

Trust chairman Tony Barron, said that all the budget holders within the PCT would be told to keep expenditure as tight as possible.

He added: "We will consider in September whether the board will need to take more drastic action."

Jeff James, chief executive of the PCT, said: "We need to really understand why there has been this surge in outpatient appointments.

"We have a good track record of intervening creatively with GPs in influencing decisions, for example on prescribing."