Mid Yorkshire Hospitals could miss savings target by £8.9m

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust could face action from the government if it is unable to meet its requirement to make £25m in savings.

The organisation, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, revealed the budget forecast in papers to its next board meeting on Thursday.

In September the Mid Yorkshire was slightly ahead of its target for savings, known as Cost Improvements Programmes (CIP).

The report said: “CIP performance is slightly behind target, but an overall shortfall for the year is forecast of £8.9m.”

New measures were needed to address the shortfall, which was partly caused by an overspend on agency staff of £1.1m.

Missing the target could lead to Mid Yorkshire being placed in “financial special measures”.

If that happened, the regulator NHS Improvement could take over some financial decision making at the trust as new ways to make savings are found. Ten NHS trusts in England are currently in special measures for financial reasons.

Jane Hazelgrave, Mid Yorkshire’s finance director, said: “The board papers show we are going to make a saving of around £16m in this financial year. Whilst this is short of our target it is a significant achievement and comes after delivering millions of pounds of savings in previous years.

“We are working hard to make sure we save as much money as we possibly can whilst still delivering safe care to our patients.

“Like many trusts at this time of the financial year we are in discussions with our regulator, NHS Improvement, and meet with them on a regular basis to update them on our plans for making savings.”

Mid Yorkshire is also among NHS trust which have been missing targets for 95 per cent of A&E patients to be either admitted to hospital, transferred or discharged within four hours.

In September only 85.5 per cent were seen within the four-hour timescale.

Staff shortages and delays in A&E around the country have led to calls for the Chancellor Philip Hammond to release more funds for the NHS in the budget on November 22.