Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust seeks £9m bailout

The bid from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which has a turnover of £334m, will be considered by the DH next month(DECEMBER).

It follows an earlier request by the trust, in July, for a £21m working capital loan. The previous bid was not agreed with the DH and was withdrawn.

The three-site organisation has cash flow problems. It said if the problems were not solved by the end of the calendar year – probably by the additional loan – it would need “some form of temporary cash support in order that the trust can continue to pay its creditors in a reasonable timeframe”.

The trust has an £18.4m legacy debt and HSJ reported earlier this year a county-wide review of clinical services was likely to recommend its accident and emergency unit and obstetrics services be concentrated on one of its sites (news, page 15, September 27).

Its finance director Chris Tidman said in a report to the trust’s board that a financial recovery plan had been put into action to make sure it avoided a year-end deficit.

The report said that, as of September, the trust was recording its planned level of deficit for the year, but only because of the “inclusion of income for emergency admissions at full tariff”. It said this additional income, worth £2.5m and attributed to higher-than-planned emergency activity, had not been agreed with commissioners.

Mr Tidman’s report said: “Whilst clinical commissioning groups have accepted the validity of the increased pressure on the trust, they have declined at this stage to make a further offer over and above the 30 per cent marginal rate, pointing out it is not affordable.” The report says the commissioners’ position has “not been accepted” and that “an invoice will be submitted… for the actual costs incurred”.

An NHS Worcestershire spokeswoman said: “NHS Worcestershire is complying with national [payment] rules. In addition NHS Worcestershire is providing £10m worth of transformational change monies to the trust this year.”