RISING costs of life-saving drugs, the price of covering vacancies with locum doctors, and agency nurses are causing financial pressure for local health service providers.

As a result, acute and primary care NHS trusts throughout Kent are together said to be on target for a projected £29.8 million over spend by the end of April.

Kent and Medway Strategic Health Authority finance director Bob Alexander revealed the difficulties at a meeting of the authority.

He said achieving financial balance was difficult for almost all the NHS organisations in the county when they were also working hard at the same time to cut down the time it took for patients to have an operation, see a doctor or another appropriate health professional.

The projected overspend represents 2.4 per cent of the £1.25 billion budget for the county. The strategic health authority is now looking for ways of reducing the expenditure without damaging the drive to improve patients' experience of the health service.

Chief executive Candy Morris said: "We are experiencing similar pressures to the rest of the country but there are particular problems facing the NHS here - high housing costs, greater difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff and high transport costs.

"Also, a number of plans to streamline health services in some localities continue to be delayed - and until these issues are resolved, it is very difficult for our NHS organisations to become truly efficient.

"Having said that, the NHS across Kent and Medway is doing its utmost to ensure we have money and energy to devote to improving the experience we give our patients and the working lives of our staff."