THE new Lancashire Cluster wants to achieve nearly £220million of NHS cuts in Lancashire in the next four years.

The cluster, made up of the region’s five primary care trusts including Blackburn with Darwen and NHS East Lancashire, is reviewing spending as part of a national drive to make £20billion of savings by 2014/15.

It hopes to shed 8.5 per cent of its £2.6billion budget by reviewing the operations and services of the primary care trusts, East Lancashire Hospitals, North West Ambulance Service, Lancashire Care, Calderstones Partne-rship and Lancashire County Council.

Mike Maguire, director of performance improvement and QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Prevention and Productivity), said: “The majority of efficiency gains will be released through measures such as reducing management costs, increasing the productivity of operating theatres and reducing length of stay.

“Further gains can be achieved by PCTs and providers working together in local health economies to agree proposals which streamline patient pathways of care or improve the management of demand for specific services.”

The cluster has submitted a bid of £50million to the Department of Health to support the “service redesign, QIPP transformational changes and work-force redesign”.

David Wharfe, director of finance and contracting, admitted £218million was a ‘substantial target’, representing “a significant risk to the maintenance of financial stability across commissioning organisations in Lancashire”.

And Tim Ellis, UNISON’s organiser for health in East Lancashire, said: “They are taking 8.5 per cent costs out, which in the end will mean around 8 per cent of staff out, because 85 per cent of costs are staff.”