NHS chiefs are being asked to find an extra £15m worth of savings so East Lancashire's hospitals trust can break even this coming financial year.
Board members of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) have been told this is on top of £30m worth of 'efficiencies' already approved and another £15m worth of detailed plans already in place.
For 2024-25 ELHT, which runs the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals, had a deficit of around £40m and has been receiving financial planning assistance from NHS England for several weeks now.
Hospitals chief exec Martin Hodgson says while it "remains incumbent upon all colleagues to manage budgets responsibility and to live within established financial parameters as set, it is right to recognise the amount of effort expended by teams across all services and settings to achieve it".
In his May board report he adds: "The requirement for this financial year is to half that deficit by the end of March 2026 which requires the trust to reduce costs by more than £60m in year.
"The trust currently has around £30m of savings approved for implementation, with another £15m worth of detailed plans in place and an organisation wide programme ongoing to find another £15m to achieve the total amount.
"This work is being supported by colleagues in the national Recovery Support Programme and other specialist financial consultants following the trust’s move into segment four of the NHS Oversight Framework in February.
In a separate finance report, board members heard the trust had also received 'Deficit Support Funding' of £21.9m in year and surge funding of £10.9m to assist with finances over that time.
Agency staff spending, at £9.8m, was said to be £5.6m under plan. But the trust's workforce plan was reported as being 517 wholetime employees above their target by March.
Trust board members have been told more than £900,000 of potential savings were identified during a series of 'rapid process improvement weeks', tackling bank and agency staff spending.
And changes to endoscopy services will see a suite at Rawtenstall Health Centre being consolidated into provisions at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospital sites, with an estimated annual saving of £650,000 a year.
New solar panels, funded by a £2m government grant, for the Burnley hospital site and Pendle Community Hospital, should also save the trust more than £250,000 a year.
The hospitals trust's board is set to meet today, Wednesday, at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.
Share