Scarborough Hospital Trust £1m ‘adversely adrift’ of financial plan

The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is “reporting an adjusted deficit of £3.6m against a planned deficit of £2.6m for the period to April 2023,” according to a report prepared for an upcoming board meeting.

The increase in the adjusted deficit means that the Trust, which runs Scarborough Hospital, is £1m “adversely adrift” of its financial plan due to several factors including increased spending on certain types of medication.

A report prepared for an upcoming meeting of the Trust’s board on Wednesday, May 24, states that one of the main drivers of the deficit has been £500,000 “increased spending on high-cost drugs” although that has been offset by additional income.

The Trust is set to “investigate reasons for overspending” on drugs and develop and implement “an appropriate response”.

Another driver of the financial variance is £200,000 of “agency spending ahead of plan” which has been “primarily linked to York emergency department and GP trainees”.

However, the report also reveals that the health organisation has been shortlisted in a capital bid to convert two rooms – one at both York and Scarborough hospitals – to see research patents, which is currently “a major block” to the Trust.

The Department of Health is now considering the request and if approved, would allow the Trust “to support commercial vaccine trials that will offer significant income to the Trust” and would enable it to “compete with the large Trusts such as Leeds and Sheffield”.

At the board’s previous meeting in April, Andrew Bertram, the finance director, highlighted that the Trust had spent £91m against a total capital programme of £86.5m for 2022/23, due to “additional allocations received late in the year”.

However, the Trust ended the 2022/23 financial year with an adjusted surplus of £147,000.

Mr Bertram added that the capital spend was “three and a bit times more than ever before”, with the total capital programme for 2023/24 estimated at £45.9m.

The minutes of the meeting state that the board acknowledged “the significant work gone into bringing the accounts in on balance and the assurance received through the year was a triumph”.