HEALTH bosses in Worcestershire have raised serious concerns after it was revealed the organisation running Worcestershire Royal Hospital could end this financial year even further in the red last year.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs the Royal as well as Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – ended the 2012-13 financial year with a deficit of £14.2 million.

Although the organisation forecast in April it would end this year with a smaller deficit of £9.8 million, speaking at a meeting of the trust’s board on Wednesday, October 29 director of resources Chris Tidman said it now looked likely this could be as high as £15 million.

Presenting his monthly financial report Mr Tidman said the trust had continued to come under an unprecedented level of demand and a need to pay for expensive temporary doctors and surgeons as a result of this as well as a general national shortage of middle-grade staff.

“My view at the moment based on where we are now is we are heading for £15 million end of year figure,” he said. “That is the most likely – £12 million is the best case scenario.”

Mr Tidman said he was particularly concerned it was possible the trust may be handed fines at the end of the financial year if it fails to meet targets such as the amount of elective operations carried out within 18 weeks of being scheduled.

“What we don’t what to do is report a number and then find at the end of March it moves significantly,” he said.

“There is a definite risk if it goes above £15 million.”

Deputy chairman John Burbeck described the revelation as “a shocker” and said he was particularly concerned a long-running trend of Worcestershire health trusts receiving lower levels of funding than elsewhere in the country, despite often much higher levels of demand, showed no signs of abating.

Although demand both on A&E and hospital trusts as a whole generally decreases in the summer, allowing the organisations to catch up on operation backlogs and make cost savings, this has not been the case this year with continued strain on all three hospitals and some predicting it could get even worse in the winter months.

Board member Andrew Sleigh said: “The picture we’ve got is not a very satisfying one.

“Where we are is not where we would like to be.

“We need to look at very closely at what’s going on.”

Earlier this year the organisation was amount 19 hospital trusts which were reported to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for failing to end the 2012-13 financial year with a balanced budget.