Barts Health bosses say no plans to cut services

Bosses at Barts Health have denied they plan to cut services as it tackles its financial problems.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs six hospitals across the capital including Newham University in Plaistow and The Royal London in Whitechapel, is the largest Trust in the NHS.

It recently revealed it has put itself into financial turnaround after discovering it was way behind its target to save £77 million.

A report to the Trust Board has revealed it has a deficit of £24.4 million and has revised its forecast to £50 million by the year end.

A spokeswoman for the Trust said: “The Trust have no plans to cut or remove services. We are currently looking at all the services we provide to identify and remove areas of waste and duplication and improve productivity and efficiency. We will only implement any significant change to our services following agreement with our commissioners and others.”

She also said the Trust was continuing its plans to build a cardiovascular centre at St Barts.

Last year the Trust spent £70 million on bank and agency staff but this will now come under close scrutiny.

A spokeswoman said: “We believe that we can save money in the longer term and in a sustainable way by reducing our reliance on the use of bank and agency staff and recruiting permanent members of staff where there is a need to do so. There is a ban on new agency staff for administration roles only. As part of our efforts to reduce our temporary staffing expenditure we are reviewing the use of temporary staffing across other staff groups. This review will have no impact on patient safety.”