Find out where NHS cash in South Tyneside is spent

NHS chiefs for South Tyneside spent half of their budget on hospital services last year.

Annual figures for South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for care in the borough, revealed the figure in their annual report for 2018/19.

The cash, about £140 million, covers the cost of treating patients at hospitals in the region, such as South Tyneside District Hospital, but also others including the Freeman Hospital and RVI in Newcastle.

It’s a fall of about 5% on previous years and was welcomed by CCG chief executive Dr David Hambleton, who said it equated to ‘a lot of money’ spent on other services to improve health.

He added: “The NHS spends a lot of time and money treating people who are ill, which is very important.

“But wouldn’t we rather people stayed healthier in their own homes for longer?

“We want people to live healthier lives and the more money we can spend on that the better our quality of life will be.”

Breakdown of CCG expenditure in 2018/19:

Hospital care – 50%

Mental health services – 11%

Community services – 4%

Better Care Fund – 4%

Individual packages of care – 7%

Prescribing and other primary care – 12%

Primary care delegated co-commissioning – 8%

CCG running costs – 1%

Other – 3%.