'Health trust deficit could worsen' (From Gazette & Herald)

'Health trust deficit could worsen'

THE health trust covering the Ryedale area had a deficit of £290,000 in the first two months of the new financial year, it was revealed yesterday (Tuesday) and there were warnings that the situation could get worse.

Members of the board of the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Trust, meeting at Malton, were told by deputy director of finance Phil Smith that each department of the trust had been told to make savings of 2pc and the clinical strategy group was making progress in pin-pointing areas where savings could be made.

"Although it is disappointing to report a deficit so early in the financial year, it does highlight the importance of establishing additional savings and income plans which can be used to mitigate against the risk."

Mr Smith said in his report that the trust had to face the prospect that planned savings may fail to materialise, operational budgets could overspend further and demand may rise to a level where primary care trusts are unable to pay for patients' treatment.

In addition, he said, if the possibility of a viable long-term private health hospital failed to come to fruition, the temporary alternative facilities at Scarborough General Hospital may need to stop and there would be a loss of income as a result.

Richard Grunwell, the trust chairman, said the decision by Scarborough Borough Council to reject plans to build a new private hospital in Lady Edith's Drive, because it was a green field site, was "sad".

He added: "We all feel there is a need for such a hospital off the main general hospital campus."

The trust approved, without comment, the recommendations arising out of the controversial report on the fiddling of waiting list figures.

In her written report to the trust, the newly-appointed chief executive, Alison Guy, said the investigation had revealed that inadequate systems and "an inappropriate management culture" had existed over a period of several years leading up to May 2002.

The trust received the report of the inquiry and endorsed the management action taken as a result to implement its recommendations on monitoring waiting lists.

The report, by Nik Patten, deputy chief executive of South Tees Hospital Trust, and Mike Davidge, of the NHS Modernisation Agency, slammed the trust in their report.

Two directors, who have been suspended on full pay since last November, Liz Parker the chief nurse and Jim Brace the information director, had each wanted to retire before the scandal and will now be allowed to do so.

Ms Guy said a new waiting list system was now in place, but she did not believe that any patient had been "clinically affected" by the massaging of the figures to the Department of Health.

Updated: 09:33 Wednesday, July 09, 2003