Monitor investigates Wiltshire trust’s finances

The Swindon-based trust, which last year saw revenues of £308.1m, has had to deal with cost increases due to the growth in the number of patients requiring emergency treatment.

While the trust has put plans in place to improve its financial position, the regulator has said it would like to understand whether more needs to be done to tackle the problem in the long term.

Great Western Hospitals finished 2013-14 with a £17.4m deficit and is forecasting it will end this year £2.9m in the red.

Laura Mills, deputy regional director at Monitor, said: “Great Western is facing a difficult financial situation, and we need to find out why.

“We are investigating to find out how we can help the trust to fix these problems, and whether we need to take further action on behalf of patients.”

Great Western Hospitals chief executive Nerissa Vaughan stressed Monitor did not have concerns about patient safety or quality of services.

She said: “This year we are working hard to manage a 15 per cent increase in unplanned activity compared to last year, this means we are now treating around 300 more unplanned patients each month.

“At the same time, we are also spending money on agency staff, which is expensive, but necessary, to ensure we have the right number of staff, in the right places.

“However, due to a national shortage, recruiting nurses in particular is a real challenge.

“We have plans in place to reduce our deficit, but the remainder of the year will be a challenge.

“At this difficult time Monitor will work with us and our partners across the local healthcare system to understand why we are now expecting a deficit and consider any actions which may help.”

Monitor will decide whether to take further regulatory action once the investigation is complete.