MERGING frontline adult health and social care services in Gloucestershire will save £10 million a year.

NHS Gloucestershire approved a move which could see services such as district nursing, social work and physiotherapy eventually provided by one organisation.

In the meantime, the decision was taken by the trust to integrate some adult services to avoid waste.

This will incur a one-off cost of £684,000 for managers to set up the more joined up way of working.

Once this is place, it is estimated to bring in savings of £10 million a year for NHS Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire County Council.

The local authority has already backed the plan to work more closely together.

At its meeting held at Cotswold Care Hospice, in Minchinhampton yesterday, the trust's board approved this new care model and a commitment to work together and agreed to investigate the possibility of single agency at a later date. Although not on the table now, a full merger could be looked at in future.

At the meeting, NHS Gloucestershire non-executive director Ingrid Barker urged health chiefs to back at all the way.

"I think we should get behind the staff that do this and give it an almighty shove," she said.

The county's population is expected to grow by 8.8 per cent by 2026.

For over 65s this increase is predicted to be 52.7 per cent and over 85s by 79.1 per cent.

With that elderly population increase comes a higher dependency on the NHS and social services.

Other services which will be integrated include community and hospital social work, occupational therapy and community hospitals.

Further work will be done on day hospitals, day services, sensory impairment services, and older people's mental health services – in conjunction with the 2Gether Trust – before they could be integrated.

A big effort will be made to help staff get used to the new way of delivering services, and overcome the traditional cultural divide between the two.

As well as making big savings, it would cut duplication of work, mean fewer hospital admissions, quicker discharge, and less use of long term services.

If the scheme is introduced nationally, it could save the country £2.7 billion.

NHS Gloucestershire, which is facing the prospect of a £230 million funding constraint over the next five years, has a 30 per cent savings target over four years, while GCC must slash its budget by £84 million over the next three years.

Though its community and adult care budget of £165 million has risen by £7.1 million, it must save £4.4 million.

The board agreed to go ahead with formalising a work programme, and to commit money to it.