Description:
 When local is best All public sector organisations are under pressure to be more efficient and plough cost savings back into ‘frontline’ services and nowhere is this truer than the NHS. Sharing ‘support’ services, such as finance, between neighbouring organisations has become an accepted way of looking for efficiency savings and one of the earliest experiments in operating a local health economy is proving both effective and economical. The East Kent Finance Consortium (EKFC) has been in existence since 2002 and now provides finance services for six healthcare organisations – the East Kent Hospitals Trust, the East Kent NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust plus four Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Vanessa Howlison, finance director of the Consortium, said: “Our core objective is to provide high quality financial services for clients at below average unit costs, which reduce year on year, to support them in achieving their own objectives. We also need to drive change by embracing the technological advances available and the opportunities presented by key national initiatives such as NHS Professionals and the government’s Agenda for Change.”
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