TIGHT controls on spending mean the local health trust is on target to end the financial year with a deficit of £37.5million – down from the £59million it recorded last year.
John Burbeck, vice chairman of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT) said the financial situation ‘seemed to be under control’ as the trust enters the last quarter of the financial year.
“There’s a comfortable level of confidence that our financial position will be within the target that we set this year,” he told a WAHT board meeting.
The turnaround has been achieved by the trust agreeing to sign up to hit a target deficit of £47.7million – with an incentive of unlocking £9.2million of NHS Sustainability and Transformation Funding as a result.
A further £3.7million was also available for hitting the trust’s operational targets – treating patients within government set deadlines – but as these were only achieved in the first quarter and are unlikely to be hit in the third and fourth quarters, the trust will only receive an additional £1million.
