Shropshire hospital trust more than £10 million in the red
Shropshire’s two main hospitals are already more than £10 million in the red less than half way through the financial year – £5 million worse than planned.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, expected a £5.8 million deficit by the end of September but have actually recorded a deficit of £10.8 million.
Simon Wright, chief executive of SaTH, said one of the reasons the trust had over spent was its high agency spend.
The trust’s total agency spend for April to August this year amounted to £7.7 million, £2.8 million above the agency cap set by NHS Improvement.
The trust is now forecasting a deficit of £18 million, £11.9 million away from its control total set by health bosses.
Mr Wright said: “If we look across the NHS about 80 per cent of trusts are in deficit.
“It is a very challenging environment. We are trying to change our organisation and change the way we deliver care at a time when money is challenging.
“We are over spending at the moment on areas like agency – that is a significant challenge for us.
“We know we need to employ more nurses and have been successful in doing that recently but we still need more.
“Our challenge at the moment is how to retain our staff and avoid us losing any more staff to stop us being reliant on these agencies which are charging huge sums for nurses.
“We have got plans to address our over spend – this won’t be easy.
“We are very keen to reduce duplication
“There are lots of efficiencies to gain which will reduce our spend.
“I think it will be challenging this winter and we will watch our finances month on month. It is going to be very tricky.”
Previously hospital bosses said they spent £16.373 million on agency staff in 2015/16, a figure which is “too high”.
However recently 42 new nurses started work at both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
Health bosses say the new staff will boost the workforce at SaTH and reduce the reliance on agency nurses and temporary staff.
Deirdre Fowler, director of nursing, midwifery and quality, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome our new nurses to SaTH.
“Their recruitment strengthens our nursing team and means we can continue our efforts to cut back on our use of temporary and agency staff. It is also advantageous to our patients in terms of continuity of care.”
