Walsall Manor deficit spiralling

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Manor Hospital, had a deficit of £3.1m at the end of July, latest figures to the board have revealed.

Chief executive Richard Kirby said it reflected pressures such as an increase in the number of patients coupled with it taking longer than planned to bring in savings.

Hospital chiefs had previously vowed to tackle their spending after racking up a deficit of £1.7 million more than planned at the end of June, when the figure stood at £2.364m against its target of £645,000. In April and May it was £1.2m higher than predicted.

Bosses need to save a total of £10.7m in 2014/2015.

It comes as the hospital has struggled to meet Government targets for A&E waiting times, the 18-week turnaround from referral to treatment and 62-day waiting time target for cancer patient referrals.

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: "Alongside our difficulties in delivering the national access targets, our financial performance remains the key cause of concern for the trust in July."

Part of the deficit has been caused by health chiefs having to put on extra operating sessions to meet demand.

Mr Kirby added: "We continue to forecast delivery of our planned surplus of £0.5m but, as we acknowledged last month, this is looking increasingly difficult and we will present an updated forecast to the board next month."

He said bosses were now beginning to prepare plans for 2015/16 to ensure that the first half of next year is more stable.

It comes after it was recently revealed that the bill for agency staff at the Manor rose by more than £250,000 in a month.

It increased to £721,000 as the overall cost of temporary workers shot up to £1.6 million throughout June.

In Mr Kirby's report to the board, he revealed that agency staff expenditure dropped in July but was running at 4.1 per cent of the Trust's paybill for the year to date.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is recruiting 70 nurses to help cope with demand on services.