Embattled health trust facing financial deficit

IT FACES INCREASING SCRUTINY AS COSTS RACK UP

- By JOSHUA HARTLEY

THE strained finances of the NHS trust that operates Nottinghamshire's mental health services are under examination as a delayed £35 million project drags on.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), which runs the county's mental health services, acknowledged in a recent board meeting that it was recording a multi-million deficit just two months into its financial year.

NHFT has been closely scrutinised over its performance in recent years, with the killings carried out by patient Valdo Calocane in 2023 leading to intense criticism over the opportunities it missed to care for him and protect the public.

Its board was told that it was now under increasing external scrutiny due to its overspending, which had led to a £5.2 million deficit in the first two months of its financial year and an underlying deficit of around £50 million.

The underlying position represents the gap between recurrent, reliable income coming into the trust and its recurrent expenditures.