£17.8m funding to transform Welsh public services announced by Jane Hutt
15 Apr 2014 01:13 PM
An initiative to help reduce the time people
spend in hospital in Cwm Taf and a project to create efficient digital patient
health records in North Wales are among projects awarded over £17.8m from
the Welsh Government’s Invest-to-Save Fund, Finance Minister Jane Hutt
announced today
The
Minister made the announcement during a joint visit to the Mental Health Unit
at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant with the Health Minister, Mark
Drakeford, who learnt how £500,000 of funding will be used to establish a
consultant-led Psychiatric Liaison Service for older people with mental health
needs.
Ministers also heard about Cwm Taf’s new Acute
Assessment Service that will cover all unscheduled care activity between 9am
and 6pm. The new services will ensure patients are assessed more rapidly when
arriving at the hospital; shorten patient’s length of stay, reduce
A&E waiting times and improve patient experience. The initiatives are
forecasting savings of some £3m by 2018.
The
latest Invest-to-Save funding package supports 19 innovative projects that will
help transform service delivery and are set to deliver many improvements to
Wales’ public services and lead to recurrent savings of some £21m.
The package includes investments totalling £9.8m for twelve projects from
NHS Wales and CAFCASS (Wales), £3.3m for four projects from local
government and the fire and rescue service and £4.7m for projects from
Natural Resources Wales, SportWales and the National Library of
Wales.
Since 2009, over 68 projects have received investment
from the Invest-to-Save Fund with a joint value of some £77m. These
projects are forecasting total annual savings of some £104million within
5 years of commencing, with further recurrent savings thereafter.
Finance Minister, Jane Hutt said:
“Given the continued pressures on public finances,
making the maximum use of available resources has never been so great for those
delivering public services in Wales. Through Invest-to-Save, we are providing
short-term funding to enable transformational change to happen in public
services that will lead to long-term benefits."
Health Minister, Mark Drakeford added:
“Invest-to-Save funding is helping Cwm Taf to
implement key elements of its three-year plan while improving the care and
experience of patients who come to hospital in an emergency.
“These initiatives, and others being funded by the
Welsh Government, have the potential to make a difference across the whole of
the NHS in Wales.”
Links
Invest-to-save Fund