YORK and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an £8 million support package as it battles a growing deficit and attempts to deliver tens of millions of pounds of planned savings.
The organisation that runs Bridlington as well as York and Scarborough hospitals, reported an adjusted deficit of £18.4 million at the halfway point of the financial year, around £9.2 million behind its planned position, a new finance report states.
The Trust is currently forecasting a deficit of £30.5 million under its mid-range scenario and £45.5 million under its worst-case scenario.
Speaking at a board meeting on Wednesday, October 28, the Trust’s finance director Andrew Bertram said the position had deteriorated further during the first six months of the year.
“We’ve delivered £24.7 million against the £31.8 million year-to-date position,” he told health leaders.
When projected across the full year, that equates to approximately £35 million of savings delivered against a £66 million target, leaving the Trust around £7 million behind where it needs to be.
Mr Bertram said continued shortfalls in the Trust’s financial recovery programme remained one of the biggest pressures on the organisation’s finances.
However, he told board members that, for the first time, enough schemes had now been identified on paper to meet the £66 million savings target.
He cautioned that around £8 million worth of those plans remain classed as high risk.
The Trust is also awaiting a decision from NHS England on an £8 million cash support application submitted earlier this year.
Board chairman Martin Barkley warned colleagues not to underestimate the scale of the challenge still facing the organisation.
“It’s just important that we all recognise that risk is there,” he said.
“We don’t want to get to a point come March or April where people suddenly say they didn’t know that was happening.”
He added that the Trust’s financial position currently sat somewhere between its mid-range and worst-case forecasts and that the next few months would be critical.
Mr Bertram agreed, telling the meeting that if the Trust simply repeated its first-half performance in the second half of the year it would end up with a deficit of about £36 million.
Executives said a major focus remains reducing spending on temporary medical staffing and delivering recovery plans within individual care groups.
Chief executive Clare Smith said financial recovery remained essential if the organisation was to invest in services, staff and infrastructure in future.
“The best we can do is keep focusing,” she said.
“Because we know our ability to invest in the future, our ability to recruit our workforce and our services is critical to having a sustainable financial plan.”
By Antonni James Nunninen
Local Democracy Reporter
