£15,000 funding cut threat to SOS bus

The SOS Bus could lose its £15,000 funding from Norfolk Primary Care Trust.

29 November 2006 08:35

The city's pioneering SOS bus could lose £15,000 in vital funding as health bosses look for ways to pay off a £50 million deficit.

Norfolk Primary Care Trust has already agreed to a drastic plan to cut services in Norfolk to pay off the debt, including cuts in funding for GP practices and changes to prescribing drugs.

Now it is considering withdrawing from next year the £15,000 it has paid to the SOS bus for the last three years.

PC Colin Lang, operational manager for the bus which helps vulnerable people on the city's streets on Friday and Saturday nights, said if the PCT withdrew its funding the money would have to be found through fund-raising.

Mr Lang said: “If we lost the money it would be disastrous.

“We would have to find £15,000 some other way. We cannot do without it, and I would not want the service we provide to stop.

“It would have a knock-on effect on the PCT itself. Their hospital corridors would be fuller, if we could not provide our service, so it would be a false economy.

“When we were first given the money, I thought it would be a rolling road and that it would be a permanent funding. But we are just keeping it upbeat and hoping it won't happen.”

The news comes after the Evening News held its second Press Ball at the Sprowston Manor Hotel on Friday night, which raised £13,200 for the lifesaving bus - £2,000 more than last year.

The life-saving SOS bus was set up after the river deaths of 16-year-old Nick Green and 21-year-old James Toms, who had both been on nights out in the city when they fell into the Wensum.

The Evening News launched its Home Safe and Sound initiative to help vulnerable people out drinking in the city and the SOS Bus was launched as part of that in 2001.

Janice Bradfield, a spokeswoman for the Norfolk PCT, said: “I'm not aware of this particular case, but we have got to repay off this £50m deficit and are looking at our budget to find ways to do it. A number of uses will be under review and we will consider each individually.”

Norfolk PCT has outlined measures to pay off the debt in full by the end of March 2008.

The plan aims to save about 6pc of the PCT's £900m annual budget.

Chief executive Hilary Daniels said the plan involved three major elements making savings by cutting waste, providing services differently and cutting services.

To donate to the SOS Bus, send cheques made payable to SOS Bus Project, 20 Bank Plain, Norwich NR2 4SF. If you can help, call 01603 763111.

Have you been helped by the SOS Bus? Call Evening News reporter David Bale on 01603 772427 or email david.bale2@archant.co.uk

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