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Hospital overspend at £678,000 in 3 months
6/ 8/2008
SURGERY has punctured Macclesfield Hospital’s ambitious saving plans after overspending by two-thirds of a million pounds – in just three months.
The operations wing, now known as a surgery business unit, fell £678,000 off its budget target between April and June.
One reason is that the hospital is not carrying out enough operations – an important source of income. It leaves East Cheshire NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, almost £600,000 off its own overall financial target for the year, as it attempts to clear its historic debt. Chief executive John Wilbraham admitted he was "concerned" by the overspend.
"At the moment we are not panicking," he added. "We spend £300,000-a-day as a trust. We have been in that position before and delivered a balanced budget."
The total surgery budget of the hospital – which has targets for how many operations to carry out – is £7.4 million this year.
Finance director Stuart North told Thursday’s (July 31) board meeting: "The financial position at the moment in the surgery business unit doesn’t give me confidence that the target will be delivered.
"We are taking urgent action to identify further cost improvements."
The overspending comes as trust chiefs try to make £5m of savings this year – a large chunk of it through "cost-efficiency measures" in medicine, nursing and other key departments.
The trust, which must demonstrate strong finances if it is to gain foundation status next April, aimed to have secured a surplus budget of £1m by then. It would have been well on target, but for the surgery overspend.
Trust chairwoman Kathy Cowell told fellow board members: "It doesn’t make happy viewing."
Elaine Derbyshire, a non-executive director, said: "We have got to be expecting alarm bells to be ringing before getting to a £678,000 overspend."
Mr Wilbraham added: "The performance is unacceptable and we know that. But we are optimistic we can turn this position around."
Trust bosses have admitted that the credit crunch and property slump have been a factor in failing to sell the Blue Zone area of the hospital site. They had hoped to raise millions by selling it to property developers.
Negotiations are currently underway with the Strategic Health Authority over the deferral of some of a £2.53m loan, dating back to 2006.
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8/08/2008 at 13:42
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11/08/2008 at 12:56