Scarborough Hospital Trust set to reduce planned deficit by almost £10m but still ‘adversely adrift’ of financial plan

The board of the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has said it is on track to reduce its planned deficit for the financial year from an original estimate of £24m to a new estimated deficit of £15.4m.

However, the Trust, which runs Scarborough Hospital, is still £1m “adversely adrift” of its financial plan due to several factors including increased spending on agency staffing and medication.

Speaking at the board’s meeting on Wednesday, May 24, Andrew Bertram, finance director, said: “The plan for us as a Trust in a new financial year 2023/24 is to deliver a £15.4m financial deficit.

“When we were sitting here last month we approved a £24m deficit but with all of the shuffling around of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the potential for some additional income to be played out, we expected that number to move a little, and it did.

“Largely because of additional income coming in we moved that £24m deficit down to £15.4m.”

“As we mentioned earlier on in the meeting, technically, we still don’t have confirmation that that plan has been signed off, but it aligns with everything that everyone knows about and agreed to as regards NHS England and the ICB and I fully expect confirmation of that.”

The Trust’s board also heard that it is currently reporting an adjusted deficit of £3.6m against a planned deficit of £2.6m for the period to April 2023.

A report prepared for the meeting stated that one of the main drivers of the deficit has been £500,000 of increased spending on high-cost drugs.

The finance director told the board: “So where are we at the end of month one? We’re £1m adrift of where we needed to be.

“We expected a £2.6m deficit but we have a £3.6m deficit and the two key points driving that is our expenditure on staffing as we are running £200,000 ahead of our agency cap and also we are behind plan on the delivery of our efficiency programme.”

Mr Bertram added: “In terms of the operational efficiency, I would argue that is progressing well for this stage of the year and we must monitor delivery closely as we progress through the year and we’ll do that.”