Walsall hospital in £700k deficit
A hospital recorded a deficit of £700,000 more than expected in just one month as it continues to battle rising patient numbers and saving demands.
Bosses at Walsall Manor Hospital had a deficit of £900,000 in April, the first financial month of the year, rather than the anticipated £200,000.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust needs to save £10.7m in 2014/15 as part of its cost improvement plan.
It has also been hit with an ever increasing amount of patients, which has seen scores of extra people from Staffordshire.
A report from chief executive Richard Kirby to board members said: "The trust has had a difficult start to the year on financial performance.
"We have reported a deficit of £900,000 which is £700,000 worse than expected.
"This is partly due to continued use of extra capacity to respond to high levels of emergencies and partly due to the fact we have not fully identified the full cost improvement plan for 2014/15 with only £8 million of our £10.7m target identified."
The trust been trying to drive down the cost of temporary workers, in a bid to reduce the amount it is spending.
Latest figures showed expenditure on agency, locum and bank workers has dropped to below £1.5m a month, after going as high as £2m last autumn.
The cost of temporary staff was £1.3m in March, rising slightly to £1.4m in April. The most recent expenditure was £473,000 on agency workers, £592,000 towards bank staff and another £420,000 on locums.
Mr Kirby added: "Although we remain under significant financial pressure, it is encouraging that in April we saw a second month of much lower agency use, only 1.6 per cent of the total pay bill."
Thousands of extra emergency patients have been treated at Walsall Manor over the last year, with extra numbers coming from Staffordshire where Stafford Hospital has had reduced opening hours in the accident and emergency department.
Figures for a six month period last year showed there were 16,062 emergency admissions, against a planned target of 14,723.
It emerged in the last week that up to 70 new nurses could be recruited at the Manor by as early as September.
Plans are being put in place to bring in the registered staff in a bid to improve care at the hospital.
This is ahead of the traditionally busy winter period and health chiefs are aiming to get the nurses recruited within the next three months.
