MEMBERS of Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust board were given assurances that tighter controls will be put in place to get a grip on its spending.

In the last financial year the trust finished with an overspend of £10.158million. As a result the trust was penalised by the Avon Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority and will have to pay a surcharge of £214,000 on top of paying back the overspend.

At a board meeting on Tuesday in Devizes non-executive director Gill Stafford was unhappy that the trust was ordered to pay out a total of £1.3million to the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust which runs Swindon's Great Western Hospital after the hospital under performed on the contract the trust had set it to treat its patients.

The trust did try to get the money back when it took the last resort of going to arbitration at the Strategic Health Authority but failed. Other decisions at arbitration resulted in the trust paying out another £500,000.

Nicola Dunn, the trust's director of finance, said: "I think forecasting of our budget could be far more robust. I am looking at where the volatile areas are and a lead director will be assigned to that. This will mean there will be better control and act as an early warning system."

Alison Knowles, director of performance, improvement and commissioning, said the trust will be dealing directly with the hospital trusts to buy services for patients rather than let another Primary Care Trust commission on its behalf.

She said: "We have appointed a commissioning manager to deal with the three acute hospital trusts (Swindon, Royal United Hospital and Salisbury). We will monitor these monthly. What we pay this year to those hospitals will be on a cost per case basis. If the trusts over perform we pay more, if they under perform we get our money back, but we hope to deliver on budget."