FUNDING for Worcester-shire’s acute hospitals will be cut next year, it has been revealed.

NHS commissioners in South Worcestershire have said they will be cutting the millions of pounds currently poured into the acute sector and re-allocating that money into community services.

The announcement co-mes in the wake of a national report by NHS medical director Bruce Keogh, which labeled the current urgent care system “un-sustainable” and said mo-re treatment must be delivered outside of hospitals.

Each of Worcestershire’s three clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) currently ploughs about half their annual spend into the acute sector.

South Worcestershire CCG, responsible for the health of 292,400 people, has a total budget of £312 million and currently ploughs about £146 million of that – 47 per cent – into the acute sector.

That compares to about £56 million – just 18 per cent of its total budget – that it spends on community care.

But David Mehaffey, director of strategy, said that balance has to change and pledged that emerging budgets for 2014-15 and beyond would reflect that position.

He told Worcestershire’s health and wellbeing board the numbers are still being crunched to establish how much funding can be removed from the acute sector.

He told members they were “expressly stating intent” to spend more on community services.

“Community services is where we are really looking to make our investment in line with the Keogh report,” he said.

GP Carl Ellson, South Worcestershire CCG’s chief clinical officer, said it is essential to keep people out of hospital wherever possible.

“We need to ensure that patients are only admitted as a last resort and where it is really appropriate be-cause hospitals do become dangerous places for the frail and elderly,” he said.

Penny Venables, chief executive of Worcester-shire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, is backing the shift away from acute care.

But she warned that the whole local health economy must work together to make the transition work, or there would be “serious” consequences.

“The challenge, as I see it, is how we remove the amount of resources and the amount of patient care from the secondary sector, mainly hospitals, into the primary sector,” she said.

“The only way we will achieve it is by doing it together.”

Trish Haines, chief executive of Worcestershire County Council, said: “I welcome the direction. The desire to drive a shift from acute to community seems exactly right to me.”

The CCGs will present completed budget plans to the health and wellbeing board early in the new year.