Hospital deficit is £12.4m and rising

10:50am Sunday 13th January 2013 in Local

Hospital’s deficit has now exceeded £12 million — and bosses expect the debt to increase further.

The hospital was in the red by £12.4 million at the end of the November and the debt is now said to be even worse than predicted.

In October bosses at the cash-strapped hospital said the debt had reached almost £8 million and feared it would reach more than £12 million by the end of the financial year in March.

Chairman David Wakefield, pictured, said people need to know that the financial situation at the hospital is improving.

Mr Wakefield said: “We are now in a deficit of £12.4 million. The deficit will get worse because it has to, but the rate of spending is getting better.

“People need to recognise that we aren’t sitting on our hands. It’s moving in the right direction.

“I am expecting it to be worse in December, 2012, as there were fewer working days in the month as elective patients didn’t come in, so we will have less income.

“Every year we plan for a loss in December so people should not be surprised.”

He assured members at the council of governors meeting at the Royal Bolton Hospital’s education centre on Thursday that management was working to solve the problem.

The hospital has already been given an £8.3 million hand-out by the Department of Health, which was expected to last until the end of December.

The deficit is the worst reported by the hospital in the last decade.

In 2004, the Royal Bolton Hospital was £3.7 million in debt and in 2006, the trust had a deficit of £6.4 million.

Health watchdog Monitor intervened last year and told hospital chiefs to appoint a turnaround director and external advisers to create a “robust recovery plan”.

Shortly after the watchdog’s intervention it was announced an internal investigation was under way after it was found that £3.8 million was unaccounted for.

Cllr Andy Morgan, who sits on Bolton Council’s health, overview and scrutiny committee, said: “It seems it is moving in the right direction, but there’s obviously a lot of work to be done.

“You would hope theywould find it through efficiency and management strategies, rather than losing staff.

“The last resort is to reduce staff particularly frontline staff, such as nurses.”

The hospital has announced that it is axing 500 jobs, and top consultants have been asked to sacrifice some of their pay.

Comments(12)

savethe nhs says...
2:51pm Sat 12 Jan 13

What I would like to know is how thorough was the due diligence process when the hospital merged with the provider arm of NHS Bolton in July 2011. This should have looked at every aspect of each organisation with a fine tooth comb. The merger would not have gone ahead until everything had been examine and found to be in order.

How on earth did the financial black hole get missed?

How much money was spent on lawyers? and have the lawyers been asked why they failed to notice RBH was in dire straits. RBH may not have been £3.8 million in the red in July 2011 but what what the heck happened between then and April 2012???

Did something big get missed in due diligence?

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genesis22 says...
2:54pm Sat 12 Jan 13

the salary bill for Bolton NHS and its counterpart the defunct PCT comes in at circa £400 million a year, representing 80% of the entire NHS budget. Administrative staff levels are immense, managerial posts are generally filled by middle aged ex nurses who trade their shift work serving patients for convenient 9-5 mon/friday office jobs on generous salaries, all part of the NHS jobs for life mantra. In a nutshell you can solve the financial problems at a stroke, bringing NHS workers pay into line with the private sector, which would see 15% pay cuts across the board ( saving £50 million) pay sick leave on a reducing sliding scale ( saving £3 million) halt all extravagent procurement - savings expected 10- 20%, remove none essential management layers and administration ( saving £2 million) Taking hard, swift, decisive action can solve problems at a stroke, of course the NHS is a monolithic public funded monster in which staff and managers protect their own nests while inflating their self worth and importance - a house of cards and smoking mirrors just like Local Authorities.

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genesis22 says...
3:22pm Sat 12 Jan 13

I should add, the private sector is an open seive, if you are not successful in your job or business you go under, only the best and able survive, companies are lean and capable, producing maximum output at minimum cost. The NHS and Local Authority operates at the opposite end of the spectrum, where profit and loss, failure or survival does not exist, they are not a seive, whoever works their stays there, guaranteed job, great salaries and benefits across the board, regardless of value, worth or productivity. Example : admin manager, £40,000 a year, off sick for 6 months on full salary, suddenly and conveniently improves and returns to work when the full salary sick pay stops, then looks at the holidays acrued while on sick - off for 4 weeks holiday next on full pay. This cycle is repeated year after year, the NHS even provides staff with an ' occupational ' support team of nurses, etc, access to doctors, and a plan of working one day a week, two days a week, to help those suffering from stress and depression. These 'workers' live in a bubble all paid for by taxpayers, our great NHS, very little to do about patients and everything to do about keeping staff protected in the security and financial comfort their employer provides - this proud public institution has been highjacked and the perpetual lying excuse constantly presented to the public is ' patient services will be put at risk ' the last thing they wish to risk is the truth being exposed

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Rocket_Scientist says...
6:19pm Sat 12 Jan 13

You would hope they would find it through efficiency and management strategies, rather than losing staff. Losing staff is not the answer.

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Citizen Cane says...
9:43pm Sat 12 Jan 13

Genesis seems to have the measure of the public sector leech mentality.

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macauley says...
1:56pm Sun 13 Jan 13

can things get worse.?

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Redwoodsteve says...
5:28pm Sun 13 Jan 13

Genesis22, I couldn't have put it better myself. Well said.

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Bert_Anchovy says...
7:53pm Sun 13 Jan 13

The deficit is growing in line with fat morris's chins.
Yet the shameless fat pig is still proud of his own failings.

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Bowtonboy says...
9:51pm Sun 13 Jan 13

Genesis22 has hit the nail on the head. It's clear that the pubic sector in general and the NHS in particular, exists primarily for the benefit of its employees. Taxpayers' cash is seen as 'monies' which have to be spent, whether there is a need or not. If a manager is efficient, his budget will be cut for the following financial year. So there is a great lack of commercial acumen. Appointing a former nurse as Chief Executive was never going to work.

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Misnomer says...
8:28am Mon 14 Jan 13

Oh how I agree with genesis22. Having worked full time in the NHS for many years I have seen daily the cuts of both frontline and essential admin staff and yet by the side of those "exciting new positions" for managerial staff who, like g22 says are invariably ex nurses who believe because they ran a ward, they can rule the world. They then go on to make a mess of everything they touch and when management realises, they are conveniently moved into a "non-job" on the same salary instead of receiving the P45 and an empty handshake.

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Misnomer says...
8:29am Mon 14 Jan 13

Oh how I agree with genesis22. Having worked full time in the NHS for many years I have seen daily the cuts of both frontline and essential admin staff and yet by the side of those "exciting new positions" for managerial staff who, like g22 says are invariably ex nurses who believe because they ran a ward, they can rule the world. They then go on to make a mess of everything they touch and when management realises, they are conveniently moved into a "non-job" on the same salary instead of receiving the P45 and an empty handshake.

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DaveLister says...
1:09pm Mon 14 Jan 13

I can understand the comments about a monolitic NHS and to a larger extent the public sector, but lets not forget the same happens in the private sector. I have worked for many private sectore companies who do the same.

Just because the workers in private sector dont get the same terms as NHS that is not the fault of the NHS workers.

I have had jobs inprivate sectore were salary is far too high in real terms for the job I did, but I would argee to be paid less, would you?

Recently I turned up for work and was told my role was no longer needed and would I take 2 years salary and my final salary paid up for an extra 10 year if I would go in the next month, I did not need long to think about it, thats the relaity of private sector.

But to substantive part of this, it is the large number of managers that need some culling, but we also need to know how much of the £12.7 Million is being paid to turn around Terry (who works for a private sector company). It would make some real savings by getting rid of all the external consultants being employed by the trust

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