Trust whose CEO quit over underfunding admits it has ‘no credible plans’

Minutes of South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust’s finance and investment committee on 21 May said: “The trust does not have credible plans to close the £25.7m deficit highlighted in the budget.”

It comes after former CEO Siobhan McArdle resigned midway through 2019-20, citing a “very challenging financial and regulatory environment”. She said the South Tees local health economy was both “underfunded and unsustainable”.

Following her departure, the trust said in February 2020 that it was on course to miss its financial “control total” for 2019-20 by more than £20m.

The trust has yet to publish detailed financial performance data for last year, or for 2020-21. Midway through 2019-20, South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group was on course to break even against its allocation.

The board papers for June also said the trust is in discussions with NHS England, along with several other trusts, about the level of financial support required in the form of “top-up” payments during the interim covid-19 financial arrangements.

A spokeswoman for South Tees Hospitals FT said: “The trust is closely monitoring the financial position under the interim covid arrangements and are confident a breakeven position can be achieved. In common with a number of trusts, discussions continue over the required level of top-up.

“The underlying position pre-covid remains unchanged and the trust is currently exploring a range of measures to address this deficit. It is however anticipated this will take a number of years to achieve.”

At the mid-year point of 2019-20, around 20 trusts in England were forecasting to end the year with a deficit of more than £20m.