THE heath trust running regional hospitals is battling a multi-million-pound deficit and says tough decisions will have to be made as it concedes productivity has not kept up with a significant increase in staffing.

Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, which runs Chelmsford Hospital as well as hospitals in Basildon and Southend, is receiving 'targeted support' after its deficit-cutting plan drifted by millions.

The trust's 2024/25 financial plan is to have a £84.6 million deficit by the end of the financial year.

To deliver that it should make savings of  £91.5 million.

By the end of the end of August, it should have been at £49.2 million spent but it is actually at £66.6 million – around £17 million away from where it needs to be which interim managing director for Broomfield Hospital Sarah Tedford said "gives everybody cause for concern".

At the end of June, the deficit was £40.4 million against a plan of £32 million.

She added that amid the deficit the trust was also concerned about increasing staffing since Covid has not seen an equal rise in productivity.

She said: "One of the areas of concern is the workforce has grown by 2,000 staff since before Covid and actually the productivity hasn't matched that.

"Obviously that is an area that we are looking at and understanding where we have invested and what it looks like.

"But there are lots of other things like reducing the length of stay which helps with the financial picture, managing our vacancies and making sure we are optimising staff.

"This isn't about less staff doing more, this isn't about pushing people harder.

"It's making sure we have people in the right place doing the right job."

She said there were a number of initiatives to improve efficiency within the trust – including standardising work around outpatients across its sites and introducing electronic prescriptions to Broomfield Hospital – the system already is used at Southend and Basildon hospitals

She said: "There are lots of things happening that should make things better for the patients and staff.

"On the back of all that we have a significant deficit we need to address and at the moment we're not need we're not where we need to be.

She added the trust will have to "take some very tough decisions about what we do and how we work"