Under-pressure NHS trust warns of £26m overspend

A hospital trust needs to cut costs "with immediate effect" after overspending this year by £26m, its chief executive has said.

In a letter sent to all members of staff, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust boss Martin Hodgson outlined a series of savings including a freeze on recruitment.

He said the trust was treating the cash crisis as "a major incident similar to our response to Covid" and said a priority was to "focus on discharges" to reduce bed occupancy.

Last week, the trust issued a "red alert" as A&E patients at Royal Blackburn Hospital faced waits of up to 15 hours.

Mr Hodgson wrote that, at the end of October, the trust was "not seeing any reduction" in its £26m overspend, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Other cost-saving measures announced by Mr Hodgson include an end to all non-essential spending and considering scrapping the shuttle bus which takes patients between the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals.

He said the trust was "under a programme of system-level investigation and intervention, with an unequivocal mandate to reduce costs with immediate effect" and treating the cash crisis as "a major incident similar to our response to Covid".

Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain, who met trust bosses on Friday, said it was a "huge area of concern".

He said: "This situation is not new. It is an ongoing situation.

"I know the hard-working staff are doing everything they can to assist patients under such difficult circumstances – with the run up to winter not helping."

Blackburn with Darwen Council's public health boss, Councillor Damian Talbot, said the deficit was "part of a wider issue across the NHS nationally".

"It is going to have to work really, really hard to tackle it. I have been given assurances by the senior leadership team that patient care and safety is paramount."

Blackburn and District Trades Union Council said: "The 'overspend' appears to be a good example of how 'efficiency savings' are really a sleight-of-hand expression for inadequate funding – you give with one hand and then take away with the other."

Mr Hodgson said: "It feels like another huge mountain to climb but we can do this.

"One way I know we can improve patient safety and experience whilst reduce our costs is to ensure that only those who need to be in hospital are here.

"We are now focused on getting as many patients home and there will be huge activity to maximise discharges."

The Department of Health and Social Care said the government was "committed to properly funding the NHS" and recently provided a £26 billion boost for health and social care in the last Budget.

Their statement added: "We have been clear that funding must go hand in hand with reform and we will ensure every penny of extra investment into the NHS is well spent."

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