Barts uses reserves to stay on track as accounts show £7.17m year-end deficit

The central London acute trust’s most recent finance paper said: “The trust’s full year outturn is a deficit of £7.17m…. compared to a planned surplus of £2.6m. This is an improvement of £0.46m on last months forecast, and is mainly within Community Health Services and Clinical & Diagnostics Divisions.”

It added: “Compared to budget, the trust recorded a deficit of £2.47m in month, taking the cumulative overspend to £8.22m. Over performance on income continues to mitigate overspends on drugs, clinical supplies and adverse CIP performance.”

A spokeswoman for the trust said: “The board report shows the forecast underlying position before the deployment of management contingency and reserves. The forecast position after deployment of contingency is a £2.6m surplus which is the control total required by the SHA. 

“The Barts and the London Trust forecast has just been independently reviewed by Price Waterhouse Cooper as part of the merger due diligence and, as such, has been validated as robust.”