No plan yet on how to balance the books next year

Thursday 11 December 2014

Ministers still do not know how they will cut 2% off their budgets to balance the books next year.

All departments are having to cut back on spending to help fill the deficit in public finances caused by the economic recovery not living up to the optimistic growth forecasts agreed by the States two years ago.

A package of emergency measures – including raiding funds and utilities for cash – was adopted at the Budget just before the election, but to meet the full black hole in States’ spending which has been estimated at £95 million over three years, a 2% cut in every department’s budget is also needed.

The job of finding the cuts is one of the first things that landed on each minister’s desk, and with nine out of eleven members of the Council of Ministers new to their jobs, the task is a tough one.

The Health and Social Services department has to find £4.7m worth of cuts – in a report recently, they said that could mean a potential increase in waiting times, a reduction in patient satisfaction and a risk that they would not be able to follow UK standards for technologies, treatments and drugs.

In a written answer to a question about the planned cuts in the States this week, Health Minister Andrew Green said that the work to find the additional cuts had begun, but that it was not yet complete.

He also said that all options were going to be considered.

In his response to a question from Deputy Geoff Southern, Senator Green wrote: “The department takes a very proactive approach to financial management and is constantly challenging itself to deliver cash releasing efficiencies and productivity improvements.

“This helps mitigate against the ever increasing demand and cost of health and social care through a combination of reallocating existing resources and delivering more care with the same or less resource.

“Patient safety and access to high quality care and services for all patients, residents and their families will always remain the priority, and all options to achieving these savings will continue to be carefully considered and assessed in terms of the impact on patients.”