Shropshire's hospitals ‘are within spending targets’

It comes after it was revealed NHS trusts nationally were almost £3 billion deeper in the red at the end of last year than was reported in their official accounts.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said it had managed to keep within agreed spending targets, allowing it to receive more than £10 million from NHS funds to help it improve its balance sheet.

Nuffield Trust analysis of accounts and financial data published by NHS regulators found an underlying overspend of £3.7 billion nationally at the end of 2016/17, compared to the £791 million reported by the regulators.

The health charity said the reported figure had been "flattered by billions of pounds' worth of one-off savings, temporary extra funding and accountancy changes that did nothing to improve the underlying state of provider finances".

They also found that providers will face £2.2 billion in unfunded inflation this year - £500 million higher than was planned.

At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust bosses said it had met its target to limit its overspending to £16.4m in 2016/17.

Jill Price, deputy finance director at the trust, said: “If the trust delivers this target, along with achieving relevant access targets, it is entitled to receive £10.5m from the NHS's sustainability and transformation fund, reducing the planned deficit to £5.9m.

“The trust’s annual audited accounts for 2016/17 illustrate that this control total was delivered and sustainability and transformation fund income of £10.8m was received.

"Our actual deficit for the year was £5.6m.

“A similar process is in place for 2017/18, with the trust having a control total deficit target of £15.4m.

"Again, if we deliver this, along with other targets, the trust will be entitled to receive an allocation from the sustainability and transformation fund of £9.3m.”

Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, warned that the scale of the financial challenge facing the NHS nationally was "eye watering".

She said: "The official figures on NHS deficits don't reflect how severe things are for hospitals in England, as the deficits reported include one-off funding boosts or savings that cannot be repeated the following year.

"Only by looking at the deficit after these have been stripped out can we see the scale of financial challenge facing the NHS - and it is eye watering.

"NHS trusts have made billions of pounds of efficiency savings every year, but these have been largely absorbed by inflation, and reductions in the cash paid to them per patient."

She added: "Yet increasing funding to wipe out these deficits and fund much-needed reform in the NHS is entirely possible and wouldn't even increase the proportion of our country's wealth spent on healthcare.

"Our hospitals are undoubtedly in financial crisis. But the solution to that crisis is not beyond the reach of the public purse."

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the report laid "bare the financial crisis facing our NHS and paints a bleak picture for hospital finances in the coming years".

"These figures are a stark reminder that this Tory Government is continuing to underfund our NHS, leaving hospital finances in a sorry state.

"Patients are paying the price of continued Tory underfunding of the NHS and as Stephen Hawking pointed out there is 'overwhelming evidence' that NHS funding and the numbers of doctors and nurses are inadequate, and it is getting worse."

He added: "The Government urgently needs to boost funding for the NHS to make sure that hospitals are able to provide the care patients expect and deserve."

Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement, said: "The NHS finances are broadly on plan for the first quarter of 2017/18, with 88 per cent of NHS providers (206 out of 233) agreeing to ambitious control totals for the year ahead and 71 per cent (166) delivering them in the first three months."

He said there had been a "massive improvement" in spending on temporary staff, and that the NHS was relying less on agency staff.

"Our latest report will show that NHS organisations are delivering financial improvement while managing increased levels of demand for services across the board," he said.

"Based on the first quarter, results providers are forecasting a sector-wide deficit of £523m by the end of the year, against a total revenue of around £80.5bn."

But he cautioned that pressure would increase in the coming months and said the NHS should "plan early and work together".

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We do not recognise these claims by the Nuffield Trust - the financial position for 2016/17 is as set out in our annual accounts, which have been independently audited by the NAO and published.

"We are investing record amounts in the NHS and as new expert analysis shows, spending on the NHS is in line with other European countries.

"Thanks to the hard work of staff our health service achieved financial balance again last year and was again judged to be the best and most efficient health system in the world."