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New cash crisis is looming
Jul 5 2005
CASH-STRAPPED City and Sandwell Hospitals are already facing more money troubles just a few months into the new financial year.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust, which manages the two sites, has overspent already and recorded a £1 million debt at the end of May.
Trust bosses, who ended up more than £5 million in the red last year, need to finish this year with a £5.1 million debt in order to keep in with their long term plan to break even in 2007.
But they are concerned that costs have gone over target as they battle to meet Government waiting time targets and are now forecasting a year end deficit of £6 million, which would make their recovery even harder.
A trust spokeswoman said: "Even though we have a £1 million deficit it is only slightly more than planned and we are confident we can reach our target.
"Our cost saving exercises have slipped a little bit and some people have taken redundancy later than planned, but we can recover from this," she added.
The trust announced 37 projects to cut costs last year including 300 redundancies and schemes to reduce the use of expensive locum and agency doctors.
Two hospital wards have already been shut down and parking fees have been raised in a bid to break even.
