The chief executive of the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has said that a gap in its efficiency delivery programme was the “biggest driver” of the multimillion-pound deficit faced currently by the organisation.
“The most likely year-end position is a £28.5 million deficit,” said Clare Smith, chief executive, who noted that “at the start of the year, our expectation was that we would balance income and expenditure, so this is a significant shift”.
The trust, which runs York, Scarborough, Malton and Bridlington hospitals, is undertaking an efficiency programme with a target of £55.3 million and a forecast delivery of £35.3 million.
Speaking at a board meeting at Scarborough Hospital on Wednesday, February 25, she said: “That matters not just for this year, but because anything we don’t deliver this year rolls into next, creating additional pressure for 2026/27.
“It is vital that we do everything we can to deliver our recovery plans this year.”
Earlier this month, the trust submitted its medium-term financial plan and Ms Smith said that “a significant amount of work” had gone into agreeing the organisation’s “activity, finance and workforce plans, and into reaching an agreed contract value with our main commissioners, Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board”.
She said: “The plan we are submitting is ambitious, but when delivered, it will return us to a balanced position in three years.”
The trust has submitted a £32.6 million deficit plan for year one (2026/27), which assumes the delivery of a £54.6 million – 5.6 per cent – waste reduction and productivity programme, followed by a £15.9 million deficit the following year.
Ms Smith said that 2028/29, “returns us to balance”, with a slightly reduced programme of cuts.
“The key to returning to balance by 2028/29 is, quite simply, delivering the waste reduction and productivity programme and controlling expenditure,” she added.
The trust’s finance director also noted that the latest “month 10 position is £28 million adverse to plan”.
A report presented at the meeting stated that the main risk schemes for delivery of the trust’s capital plan are the Scarborough Hospital maternity roof and the York special care baby unit schemes due to the “decant of the services and completion of works”.