£20 million loan for Gloucester hospitals

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has taken out an emergency loan of £20 million to cover its £11 million deficit.

The trust, which runs Cheltenham General Hospital, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and services at Stroud Maternity Unit, overspent on developing and improving buildings and equipment, and began an independent review after it was found suppliers were not being paid on time.

The loan from the Department of Health, which arrives after the trust previously forecast a £5.3 million surplus for the end of this financial year, will ensure staff salaries are not affected by the large debt.

Deborah Lee, the trust's chief executive, said: “It's a really disappointing day. I certainly didn't expect to be coming into post making these announcements.

"The board is devastated, and deeply regrets the oversights in respect of financial management and accepts that it is the collective responsibility of the board and needs to look at itself very, very carefully to understand how did this happen."

Mary Hutton, Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group's chief accountable officer, added: “We acknowledge the pressures facing the trust but we believe strongly that, moving forward, the right leadership is in place to stabilise their finances and to ensure their internal procedures and oversight arrangements are strengthened.

"We are committed to working in partnership to tackle the underlying challenges which face the trust and the whole healthcare system in Gloucestershire."

The trust will continue to run as normal and says that patient care will be unaffected.