Leeds Teaching Hospitals boss gives update on financial situation as 'significant savings' needed
A hospital boss in Leeds has shared an update on the trust's financial position, after it was revealed that it needs to make "significant savings".
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which earlier this year identified the need to save cash, has made “strong progress” according to a health chief.
It comes after the BBC reported that a leaked email showed the trust had told staff finances were in a “critical situation”, and that it needed to make savings of £110m.
The BBC report said that the trust’s email said there would also be reductions in the use of temporary staff.
This week, Jonny Gamble, Interim Director of Finance at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said in a statement to the YEP: “It’s a challenging time financially across the NHS. We have a duty to spend public money wisely, living within the funding available. At the start of this financial year we identified the need to make significant savings.
“We have made strong progress against delivering these savings with the aim of breaking even at the end of the year.”
He added: “Permanent recruitment is continuing where there is a clinical or operational need to make appointments, and we have taken action to reduce spending on bank and agency staff while maintaining clear focus on providing safe services for our patients.
“Over recent years we’ve seen a significant increase in permanent staff and we need to ensure our colleagues are deployed as effectively as possible.
“Tackling the financial gap is a huge challenge and although we have made good progress so far there is a lot of work still to be done.
“We have a proud history here at Leeds of achieving financial balance while still delivering high quality patient care. We are sure we can do it again, and patients can continue to have confidence in our services.”