Poole warns of deficit

At the end of month six, the trust had achieved a surplus of £48,000 with £3,000 of this realised in September. However, board papers warn there are “significant challenges” in the second half of the year including “shortfalls on income from service developments/private patients, additional cost pressures and shortfall on CIP delivery programme which may put the trust into deficit for the year”.

The trust, which is in breach of its Monitor authorisation due to governance concerns, currently has a financial risk rating of three. It has delivered £4.4m of savings so far, about £0.5m short of the target for year to date.