Tough start to financial year for Basildon

The trust was £0.7m in deficit at the end of the month - reflecting the low number of “normal” working days in the month - and is forecasting a full year surplus of just £200,000.

Pay costs were £500,000 higher than in April last year and the cost improvement plan was £400,000 behind plan.

This has meant the trust has a Monitor financial risk rating of two, although it hopes to improve this to three during the course of the year.