Trust to slash further £13m from budget

Rochdale Infirmary

The Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs the Rochdale Infirmary, needs to cut a further £13million from this year’s budget.

The Trust announced last year that it would need to make £43million in savings – it now needs to make savings of approximately £56million by April.

The latest amount comes as the Trust has been given a ‘red’ risk rating by the North West Strategic Health Authority. The Trust has been given the highest risk rating following assessment of its finances and saving plans.

A report given to the board of NHS North England showed that at the end of November 2011 the Trust had recorded a surplus of almost £1.7m for the financial year to date.

The report also showed that the Trust’s predicted surplus for the full financial year is £3.5m which is 0.61 per cent of its £570m budget.

The Trust’s position will now be closely monitored by the Strategic Health Authority.

The report also states that the Trust has to make savings equivalent to 9.7 per cent of its annual income.

Barbara Herring, Acting Director of Finance & IMT at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "The financial report by the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) is consistent with the Trust's stated financial position for this financial year, 2011/12.

"In February 2011 we confirmed that the Trust would need to make £43m in cost savings in 2011/12, 8 per cent of turnover. This has been a significant challenge and the size of the financial challenge has automatically rated the Trust ‘red.’

“The Trust’s Transforming for Excellence (TfE) programme, however, has helped the Trust deliver huge efficiency savings without compromising the quality of clinical care. To date, £41m of recurrent cost saving schemes have been identified with £2m being covered non-recurrently.

"However, in addition to the £43m target we set, our local Primary Care Trust (PCT) commissioners who purchase our hospital services from us have planned to commission less services from the Trust. This means they have been sending less patients to the Trust during the year for certain planned outpatient and surgical procedures, to the value in year of around £13m; the full year effect around £21m.

"This has increased our 2011/12 cost improvement target to 9.7 per cent of turnover, approximately £56m, as reported by the SHA which has been offset in year by receipt of £10m non recurrent financial support from our PCT commissioners.

“The Trust remains on course to deliver its financial target.”