FT secures £30m to upgrade IT system and A&E

Bolton Foundation Trust said in a statement that three-quarters of the cash would be issued as a loan from the Department of Health, while the rest will not have to be repaid.

It plans to spend £8m on replacing its IT system, which is not fit for purpose. The other £22m will be spent on the estate, including refurbishment of the accident and emergency department and converting the boiler house into an “energy centre”.

The FT had previously warned of the “clinical and information governance risk” posed by its paper document management system and ageing patient administration system.

Meanwhile, Monitor confirmed last week that the trust is no longer in financial breach of its licence.

The trust, which turned over £292m last year, had been in breach since 2012, when it had a deficit of £14m and had repeatedly failed to meet waiting time targets. A review subsequently found the trust had “misreported” the level of recurrent savings it had achieved.

Bolton is the first FT known to have come out of financial breach.

Justin Collings, senior regional manager at Monitor, said this showed “it is possible for a foundation trust to turn itself around from a position of large deficits and poor operational performance to be a financially viable trust delivering good outcomes”.

The trust has forecast a surplus of £1.6m for this year.

Jackie Bene, the trust’s former medical director who took over as chief executive in 2012, has been shortlisted for chief executive of the year at the HSJ Awards 2015.