6 in 10 NHS trusts in deficit
27 February 2017
- 57% of NHS trusts ended the third quarter of 2016/17 in deficit.
- This is a relative improvement from the previous quarter, and is lower than any other quarter this year or last.
- But this comes at the same time as NHS trusts expect to end the year with a £873m overspend--£293m worse than planned.
Nearly 60% of trusts are currently in deficit, although following allocation of funding for sustainability and transformation this has improved from nearly 75% at this point last year.
It is also a small improvement on last quarter, where 60% rather than 57% of trusts were in deficit. This percentage is still very high by historic standards, and comes in the context of transfers from capital (investment) funding in order to alleviate deficits and support day-to-day running costs.
The size of the deficits across these NHS trusts means that they were £886m in deficit, and are forecasting a year end deficit of £873m. This is £293m worse than the target for the year of £580m.
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