CASH CRISIS FOR TRUST AS TREATING PATIENTS IN CORRIDORS PROVES EXPENSIVE

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust is facing a potential £33 million deficit this year as costs run out of control and the Government refuses to pay for high inflation. The best scenario for 2023-24 is a deficit of £11 million.

The Trust may have to borrow this autumn just to keep afloat – just as it prepares to borrow another billion to build the Watford General triple towers.

The Trust Board will hear at a meeting tomorrow (7 September) that:

• A and E pressures including opening ‘surge beds’ and ‘caring for patients in Emergency Department corridors’ have bust the budget by £1.5 m
• The drugs and clinical supplies budget has been overspent by £2.7m
• The budget for outsourcing  – which is supposed to save money – is overspent by £500,000
• The Trust is burning through its cash reserves rapidly –  it had £35 m ‘in the bank’ in March,  £16.9m in May and just £11m in July. Borrowing could be needed by early next year
• Tight spending controls are being imposed to bring costs down

THE GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE TO FUND INFLATION AND THE IMPACT OF THE STRIKES HAVE MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR THE TRUST.

OTHER TRUSTS ARE PROBABLY SUFFERING TOO.

BUT QUESTIONS MUST BE ASKED ABOUT WHY THE WEST HERTS TRUST MANAGEMENT HAS ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN QUITE SO QUICKLY – AND WHY, FOR INSTANCE, HIGH SPENDING HAS NOT BROUGHT BETTER RESULTS IN A AND E, WHERE WEST HERTS LAGS THE REST OF THE NHS ON SOME MEASURES