Cash-strapped hospital trust aiming to avoid borrowing
The boss of an cash-strapped NHS trust says all efforts are being made to try and avoid borrowing from the Government.
Diane Wake, chief executive of the Dudley Group NHS Trust, which runs Russells Hall, said planned savings could prevent the organisation from sliding into a deficit, but that it would depend on how it copes with the upcoming winter period, traditionally the most demanding for hospitals.
The trust's stark financial position was revealed by the Express & Star in July when bosses said at that time it was due to run out of money this month.
The situation has improved slightly since then and Ms Wake insisted the Dudley trust was not alone in facing financial difficulties.
She said the success of its efficiency programme would determine whether the trust ends up with a surplus or deficit next year.
Ms Wake said: "We always anticipated this year that for a short-term basis we may have to draw down cash from the Department of Health, we wouldn’t be the first trust to do that, in fact I think we’re in the minority in terms of trusts not having to do that.
"We anticipated that it would be early summer time when we might have to do that and we’ve not so far. We’ve been trying to protect our cash position doing all of the things that our regulators advise that we do and at this moment in time it’s looking like it might be around January time when we might have to draw down cash from the Department of Health.
"We’re trying to do everything we can not to do that, I think in terms of our financial position if we look at where we are we’re probably one of the better performing trusts financially."
Ms Wake continued: "Worst-case scenario next year our deficit could be £10m but if we deliver the efficiency programme that we anticipate we will deliver we could be delivering a surplus of £10m and I think it really depends which way it goes and how the cost-improvement programme planned over the year... at the moment it’s looking fairly positive but we need to keep working on that because sometimes we have to do a pause and reflect that we might need to some investments over winter to make sure we have a smooth transition over winter.
"Even though we’ve taken some of that into account, sometimes that can impact on some of the efficiencies you want to make.
"But in terms of where we benchmark with other trusts our financial position might not be quite where we want it but we’re by far not the worst at all."
