THE NHS trust which runs Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General hospitals has been put in special measures following an investigation into its financial governance found “very serious failings”.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of three trusts to have been put into financial special measures by NHS Improvement.

The Financial Special Measures programme, launched by NHS Improvement as part of the financial reset in July 2016, aims to turnaround trusts and foundation trusts which have either not agreed savings targets or planned to make savings but deviated significantly from this plan.

Last month, the trust was forced to take out a £20million loan after a planned £5.3million surplus for the end of this financial year was revised to a deficit of £11.1million.

As part of financial special measures, the trust agrees a recovery plan with NHS Improvement.

The other two trusts to be put into special measures on Monday are East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement, said: “NHS providers all over the country have responded well to the financial challenge, are working flat out to meet growing demand, and continue to provide high quality care in more efficient ways.

“The five trusts who are already in Financial Special Measures have responded well, and we’ve been able to work together to identify around £100 million extra in savings.

“However, the three providers going into Financial Special Measures are causing significant concern.

“They’ve agreed savings targets locally but are a long way from meeting them.

“We also need to be able to rely upon good financial governance in every provider, so the problems unearthed at Gloucestershire are a real concern.

“The financial performance of these three trusts has simply not been good enough and so we’re sending in some targeted support to identify what the problem is, and help them fix it.”

Since announcing the deterioration in its financial position in September, a number of measures have been introduced by the trust.

An interim director of finance has been appointed whilst a review of the trust’s spending priorities is also being carried out.

Recruitment is also underway for two non-executive directors with financial skills to work alongside an interim non-executive who started earlier this month.

Running parallel to these actions is an independent review which has been jointly commissioned by the trust board and NHS Improvement to find out how the situation arose, how it went unnoticed for so long and who was involved.

This investigation is expected to commence next month and conclude in early January.

Deborah Lee, chief executive of the trust, said: “The board fully recognises the scale of the financial challenges facing the trust and the seriousness of the concerns surrounding the historical financial governance arrangements. 

“The whole board is committed to working constructively with NHS Improvement to ensure the trust gets back onto a firm financial footing as soon as possible.

“We are pleased that as part of the investigatory work undertaken by NHS Improvement to date the regulator have recognised that the work already undertaken by the trust will provide a foundation for recovery. 

“We firmly believe that excellent quality of care and good financial health go hand in hand and this will form a key plank of our recovery plan, I am already heartened by the extent to which our staff have engaged with and begun to rise to this challenge.”