Health chiefs facing fresh crisis over £20m debts

An independent review by accountants Ernst & Young at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has uncovered significant shortfalls in its £31m savings programme – despite a forecast as recently as November of a gap of less than £4m in the plans, part of an efficiency drive facing all NHS trusts.

The trust, which moved into new private finance initiative hospitals in Wakefield and Pontefract a year ago and also runs Dewsbury’s hospital, also faces pressures from increasing demand, leaving it with an estimated £19.7m deficit in 2011-12.

The crisis – the latest in a series to hit the trust – piles further pressure on senior executives in the wake of a £4.5m payout to a senior doctor last month for sexual and racial discrimination and comes despite a pledge by local health chiefs to plug a pre-existing £14m budget gap.

The trust faces further controversy over a major reconfiguration of services likely to see the closure of A&E at Pontefract, which has been shut overnight because of staff shortages. Another measure encourages patients to go to neighbouring hospitals.

Last night Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett said it was time for “tough, robust” action. The trust faces a national requirement to save four per cent of its costs but must concentrate on providing core services for local people.

“The time for talking is over – I want to see results from this trust. Management have to focus on that,” he said.

A Mid Yorkshire spokesman said: “We have made significant headway in meeting many of our planned cost improvement savings but they have not all been realised. There have been some unavoidable costs, such as the need to fully implement the staffing models for new hospitals and to invest in some services during transition to new models of care.

“It is very important to us that we continue to provide safe, effective services to local people and to do this we need to work harder still to turn around our difficult financial position.”

Mike Potts, chief executive of NHS Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield District, said it had agreed in principle to provide £14m in support and it was working through details in what was a “very complex situation”. He added: “Our priority is to ensure that the hospitals can continue to provide the high standards of patient care we all expect.”