MORE than £28 million of extra funding is coming to Gwent to support under pressure health services - but NHS bosses are warning that savings must still be made to cover the multi-million pound shortfall the award covers for 2010/11.

The money - part of an extra £110 million made available to the NHS in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) this year - will help Gwent's Aneurin Bevan Health Board and others to meet their legal duty to break even by the end of the financial year on March 31.

But the money, further supplemented by ring-fenced funding of tens of millions of pounds for specific issues such as Continuing Healthcare, is a one-off award which in reality only serves to give health boards more time to find savings to plug multi-million pound budget deficits that they would otherwise have faced this year.

In Gwent, the health board was £24.8m overspent for the year to the end of December, and might have faced an even bigger deficit by the end of March.

The WAG announcement of the extra £110m, made last month, recognises what Aneurin Bevan Health Board finance director Alan Brace, in his latest report, calls the "exceptional" pressures being faced by the NHS across Wales.

The severe winter and the demands of higher than usual levels of flu are just two of the latest factors to hit NHS Wales finances, with rising demand for emergency treatment, higher than expected costs for meeting waiting times targets, and wage pressures already big issues.

Mr Brace said that while the new money is welcome, it is essential staff across the health board continue to try to make savings, as this year's underlying overspend must be addressed, as well as millions of pounds of savings that will be required during 2011/12.

Tough decisions ahead

GWENT is not alone in receiving a financial health boost from WAG. Hywel Dda Local Health Board in west Wales, is receiving more than £32m, and Cardiff and Vale, CwmTaf, and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg - facing deficits of £18-28m - are likely to require significant help. Betsi Cadwallader Local Health Board, in north Wales, has received around £12m.

But such help is non-recurring, and as the money available for NHS budgets in Wales in future begins to fall, tough financial decisions could be ahead.