NHS bosses say cuts aimed at saving £306 million are leading to better outcomes for patients.

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board's operational plan for 2025/26 includes a raft of savings across the local NHS organisations.

The ICB itself is looking to save £83.3 million by redesigning services to 'remove waste or spend of low clinical value', in areas such as continuing healthcare, mental health and prescribing.

Senior ICB mangers gave an update on the plan's progress after seven months to the health and care scrutiny committee at Staffordshire County Council.

Interim chief financial officer Claire Finn said the ICB is currently £10.3 million behind on its efficiencies, but that this shortfall is expected to be recovered by the end of the year.

The committee was told that as well as saving money, the changes to services were leading to improvements for patients.

Interim chief medical officer Dr Rachel Gallyot gave the example of a scheme to save £6.3 million by reducing the 'inappropriate' prescribing of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) to patients with malnutrition.

There is now a 'food first' approach, with improved referrals to dieticians, instead of the over-reliance on ONS – Staffordshire was previously the highest prescriber of ONS in the country.

Dr Gallyot said: "There were a lot of things we were doing that were adding no value to patients at all and we were not using resources in the most effective way.

"It was quite an exciting opportunity for us as clinicians to really make some change and impact the use of resources.

"It benefits patients and it also benefits the staff working within the system. I'm really please to say that we have shown that this year.

"We've seen some really great work on ONS, with improvements in upskilling clinicians to get the right people to the dieticians – within the dietetics service the waiting time has actually decreased.

"We've had an improvement in the finances, improved outcomes, improved waiting times. So this is really possible."

The ONS scheme is one of several within the area of prescribing, where the ICB is planning to make £12.2 million of savings overall. Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent previously had the highest prescribing expenditure out of 42 ICBs, but the situation has now improved.

Interim chief financial officer Claire Finn said: "We were the worst, but I'm pleased to say that while there's still some way to go we're now fourth.

"We believe if we continue to carry out this programme we will come more in line with the national average."

The ICB is also looking to save £51.2 million through 10 schemes in continuing healthcare, another area of spending where Staffordshire is a 'massive outlier', with £2 million of savings expected in mental health.

Managers say these schemes are aiming to reduce the amount of 'restrictive' care, but some committee members raised concerns that these cuts would impact negatively on patients.

Cllr Jill Hood said: "I got the impression from this paper that we're pushing people onto the community.

"We don't have the volunteers any more. You only have to be an elderly's person's house and see the speed with which their district nurse nurse rattles through what they're doing – it's almost inhuman.

"The amount of cuts seem ludicrously high. We're pushing people out into the community and it's not going to work."

Ms Finn told the committee that 'market managing' would be vital.

She said: "We definitely need to ensure there are sufficient suppliers, with fair and equitable rates so they're able to provide sufficient services."

Committee members asked to receive a further report on the changes to mental health services, including input from providers such as North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare.

The ICB expects the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent NHS system to be £95 million in deficit by the end of the year.

But delivery of the 2025/26 financial plan will mean that central funding to cover this deficit will not have to be repaid.