Warning that a Lancashire hospital trust needs to urgently reduce costs

It's been claimed that a hospital trust in Lancashire needs to urgently reduce its costs, after the boss revealed that they are running at a £26million overspend.

Chief Executive of East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, Martin Hodson, has written to staff saying there will be a freeze on recruitment and an end to non-essential activity.

They are also considering scrapping a shuttle bus which runs between the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals.

Mr Hodgson’s comments come after the the trust revealed 15-hour waits for patients at the Royal Blackburn’s accident and emergency department triggering a ‘red alert’.

His letter to staff says the trust was ‘under a programme of system-level investigation and intervention, with an unequivocal mandate to reduce costs with immediate effect’ and treating the cash crisis as ‘a major incident similar to our response to Covid’.

Mr Hodgson said the current waiting times at the Royal Blackburn A and E were ‘unacceptable’.

A statement from Blackburn and District Trades Union Council said: “The ‘overspend’ at the trust appears to be a good example of how ‘efficiency savings’ are really a sleight of hand expression for inadequate funding – you give with one hand and then take away with the other.

“It is difficult to know at the best of times how to calculate the ‘ideal’ allocation for a service, but the situation gets even worse when what is allocated is chipped away at by other measures.

“Other than the ‘go slow’ on vacancy filling, it is very difficult to pin down what the trust’s ‘expenditure reductions’ will actually amount to – except that the shuttle bus has clearly been put in the firing line again.

“It seems to be a classic case of bosses picking on something they don’t really understand the value of because they have never really understood how helpful it is.”

Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain, who met with ELHT bosses on Friday, said: “This is a huge area of concern for all my constituents, and residents in the areas surrounding Blackburn.

“This situation is not new.

“In fact, it is an ongoing situation. I know that the hard-working staff are doing everything they can to assist patients under such difficult circumstances – with the run up to winter not helping.”

Blackburn with Darwen Council’s public health boss Cllr Damian Talbot said: “The trust’s £26m deficit is part of a wider issue across the NHS nationally.

“It is going to have to work really, really hard to tackle it. I have been given assurances by the senior leadership team that patient care and safety is paramount.”