Today’s report on NHS finances shows that nearly one in five hospital trusts and one in ten primary care trusts was in “significant” deficit in 2003/04.
Debt in the affected trusts averaged £5 million each, or 0.5 per cent of their annual budget.
The NHS trusts with the biggest deficits were at North Bristol (£32.2 million), the Oxford Radcliffe (£24.8 million), East Kent Hospital (£24 million) and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals (£30.6 million).
Many of these were bailed out with government funds but some, such as the Mid Yorkshire Trust, are still in difficulties. The number of trusts in deficit was higher than in 2002/03.
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“If we have another five years like the last, things will be getting quite difficult,” Auditor General Sir John Bourn warned. “We will have another five years of just managing to keep the show on the road before the whole carriage goes into the ditch.”
The report, Financial Management in the NHS, says the situation is still deteriorating and the Government disclosed yesterday that the NHS had a net deficit of £140 million in 2004/05. This masks huge variations between trusts, including £30 million overspending by the 25 foundation hospitals in operation that year.
If accumulated debt over several years is included, the NHS deficit rises to more than £350 million. According to the Audit Commission, the trusts with the highest deficits in 2004/05 include Mid Yorkshire Hospitals (£20 million); Surrey and Sussex (£28 million), Shrewsbury and Telford (£10 million). PCTs with big debts included Kensington and Chelsea (£14 million).
The NAO report also says that auditors are worried about the finances of nearly 200 of the 600 NHS trusts and primary care services. The figures show that over the past five years the picture has been getting steadily worse despite the Government spending £63 billion on the NHS in 2003/04 and £69 billion in 2004/05.
Commission officials said that services would have to be cut or merged to ensure trusts balanced their books. They claimed that hospitals were buckling under the pressure of meeting targets such as cutting waiting times and paying for the new consultant contracts.