Pressure on region’s hospital bosses to balance books
HOSPITALS HAVE been hit with tough targets to balance their books or miss out on millions of pounds of bailout funding.
Spending limits are being imposed to bring down a huge deficit among NHS trusts which has reached £2.45bn – the biggest in the history of the health service.
Extra funding has been agreed by the Government – but trusts must meet an agreed financial position at the end of the year, and hit targets on waiting lists and A&E performance, to get the cash.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals must slash £65m from its budget this year, but is yet to identify where £20.5m of the savings will come from, according to its latest finance report.
Director of finance Jonathan Wood said it was not unusual to have a gap in savings plans at this stage of the financial year.
He said: “There is an ongoing process and activity is taking place month by month to address this.”
The Government allocated £22.8m in extra funding for the Leeds trust.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals has agreed to be £9m in surplus at the end of the year after receiving extra funding of £11m. That is dependent on making cost savings of £24.4m.
The trust’s latest finance report warned of a “significant shortfall” in finding costs savings.
Finance director Matthew Horner said: “The trust is in a strong position to address these challenges but we do so against a national backdrop of significant financial pressures.”
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, must make £26m in budget savings and end the year with a £4.2m surplus.
Its allocation of extra funding is £16.7m.
A report to the last trust board meeting said all departments were already struggling to make all the budget cuts in May.
Jane Hazelgrave, Mid Yorkshire’s finance director, said: “The trust has been selected to take part in a national financial improvement programme to support the trust to deliver efficiency savings.
“The trust board recognise the challenge and this was set out in the recent public board paper.
“Any surplus generated will be used to support the trust capital investment programme.”
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust must make £14m in budget savings in order to end the financial year – but will still be £16.1m in deficit.