DESPITE getting a real terms increase in funding the NHS will still need to make savings as a result of George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

NHS Hertfordshire welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement on Wednesday last week that there would be additional investment in social care.

A spokesman said the NHS also backed the “improving integration between health and social care because this is what users of these services in Hertfordshire have told us they want too”.

But a cautionary tone was struck over efficiencies.

The spokesman added: “The financial settlement that has been announced will not cover the increased costs that come with an ageing population, together with new technologies and higher cost drugs.

“We are keen to make sure that resources are targeted on those things that make the most difference to patients and to improve the services the residents of Hertfordshire receive.

“We know that better, safer care is also more cost effective.”

One area where health chiefs have changed the way they work is in concentrating specialist care in fewer locations.