THE HOSPITAL stands to lose millions of pounds – after missing key financial targets.

Accountants at the Great Western Hospital have told regulators NHS Improvement (NHSI) that they can’t hit their “control targets” by the end of the year.

It means they will lose a year-end cash boost of £8.6 million.

GWH’s finance director has warned that the trust could end the year having borrowed £30 million – just so they can pay suppliers and staff. She said that GWH had suffered a cash deficit for the last six years.

She has urged regulator NHSI to help GWH develop a “long term cash strategy” that will stop them having to approach national health chiefs for money “month on month”.

GWH had been challenged by NHSI to end the year with a deficit of £4.9m. They predict their deficit will now be £11.4m – £6.5m away from the NHS “control” total.

At a meeting of the Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s directors, finance chief Karen Johnson said: “We’ve formally reported that we will be deviating from control total.

“If we had hit our control total we would have received £8.6m worth of cash into the system. If we don’t hit the control total that money will go back to the national pool and will be distributed to those trusts that will achieve their control total.

“Quite rightly, our regulators are concerned about our financial situation, although they recognise there’s significant pressure on the NHS as a total.”

She said that NHS England’s regional finance director had “put the pressure” on GWH to improve their financial position.

Ms Johnson, who joined GWH in 2010, said that the hospital trust had for several years struggled with cashflow.

But the recent winter pressures had added further strain on the hospital’s books:

:: A NHS order to cancel non-urgent operations and appointments in January is expected to cost the hospital £800,000 in lost income.

:: A higher premium is paid to hospital insurers for patients cared for “in corridors”.

::The trust received less from NHS commissioners for non-planned operations and procedures – of which there have been more during the busier winter months.

Ms Johnson said that the trust had recently won a £3.3m loan from the Department of Health and Social Care to “ensure we could pay not just our creditors but our staff”. She expects to have to borrow another £6m in March.

Describing the “sticking plaster” cash loans, the finance chief appeared desperate to arrange a longer-term solution to the trust’s monthly cashflow problems.

She told GWH executives: “We have been saying [to NHSI] for many months that this trust needs a long term cash strategy.

“We feel it’s inefficient to just keep asking for borrowing month on month and we need something a bit more sustainable for this trust.

“We’re pushing them to say [if] that is something we can either have a discussion about or we can’t have a discussion about. But we need to know.”

Ms Johnson said that other trusts in the country faced similar challenges: “Nobody seems to have had a long term cashflow signed off. It feels like you have to request money on a monthly basis.”