Hospitals could miss savings target by £8.9m
AN NHS trust is forecasting a potential shortfall of almost £9m against its target to make budget cuts by the end of the financial year.
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust could face action from the Government if it is unable to meet its requirement to make £25m in savings.
The organisation, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, revealed the budget forecast in papers to its next board meeting on Thursday.
In September the Mid Yorkshire was slightly ahead of its target for savings, known as Cost Improvements Programmes (CIP).
The report said: “CIP performance is slightly behind target, but an overall shortfall for the year is forecast of £8.9m.”
New measures were needed to address the shortfall, which was partly caused by an overspend on agency staff of £1.1m.
Missing the target could lead to Mid Yorkshire being placed in “financial special measures”.
If that happened, the regulator, NHS Improvement, could take over some financial decisionmaking at the trust as new ways are found to make savings. Ten NHS trusts in England are currently in special measures for financial reasons.
Jane Hazelgrave, Mid Yorkshire’s finance director, said: “The board papers show we are going to make a saving of around £16m in this financial year. Whilst this is short of our target it is a significant achievement and comes after delivering millions of pounds of savings in previous years.
“We are working hard to make sure we save as much money as we possibly can whilst still delivering safe care to our patients.
“Like many trusts at this time of the financial year we are in discussions with our regulator, NHS Improvement, and meet with them on a regular basis to update them on our plans for making savings.”
Mid Yorkshire is also among NHS trusts which have been missing targets for 95 per cent of A&E patients to be either admitted to hospital, transferred or discharged within four hours.
In September only 85.5 per cent were seen within the fourhour timescale, up from 83.8 per cent the previous month.
Staff shortages and delays in A&E around the country have led to calls for the Chancellor Philip Hammond to release more funds for health and social care in the Budget on November 22.
Doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that more than a million more patients around the country could be waiting more than four hours in A&E by 2020 unless action is taken to ease demand on the NHS.
The BMA said there would be 23.8m A&E attendances over the next year, an increase of 345,000 on the previous 12 months.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA’s chair of council, said: “These alarming figures show the scale of the challenge facing the NHS, as demand increases and waiting times rise many more patients are left waiting longer for care.
“It is clear from this analysis that we need urgent action to close the gap between investment and rising demand on the NHS.”