Walsall Manor Hospital faces £17.7m shortfall

The trust which runs the hospital has faced increasing pressures which has led to a £12.9m deficit over the last 12 months.

But bosses are preparing for a further cash crisis during this new financial year and are already anticipating a £17.7m deficit, aided by the backlog of problems including an overspend on temporary staff.

This was despite a £200,000 cut in spending on bank, agency and locum staff from January to February, which left a £1.56m bill.

The position has been revealed as part of the annual plan for 2015/16 and comes as the hospital has been under growing demand from patients and faced with increasing costs.

The Manor has a backlog of patients waiting for elective care and it is expected to grow during the next 12 months.

The Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust plan says: "Partly as a result of our major operational pressures that required us to spend more money on temporary staff than we had planned, our financial position deteriorated considerably in the year.

It adds: "The trust has faced a 'perfect storm' of problems in 2014/15 that have left us with major operational performance and financial issues to be addressed in 2015/16."

Emergency admissions at the Manor have rocketed by more than a quarter in the last two years.

It has seen the trust continually struggle to reach the four hour A&E target of 95 per cent.

It has also found it difficult to hit targets for the number of patients transferred to the department from ambulances in 15 minutes.

The hospital has been hit with fines of hundreds of thousands of pounds for the delays.

It faced one of its busiest periods ever and was pushed to full capacity, with almost 100 extra patients a week between the end of December and early January.

The hospital was forced to declare a major incident at the height of its problems, with more bed space created and staff drafted in to deal with the sudden influx of patients.

The trust has been battling the use of temporary staff which has added to costs.

Health chiefs are looking to recruit 85 permanent nurses and another 35 care support workers under £3.5m plans.

This would shave around £1m from expenditure on bank, locum and agency workers.

It was initially anticipated that the nurses would be recruited from Ireland, but they have snubbed the opportunity.

However, there has been a more positive response from Greece, Italy and Spain about relocating to the borough.