A financial break-through
The Barts Health group of hospitals has balanced its books for the first time since the trust was created through a merger almost ten years ago.
The latest financial position, reported to the trust board next week, shows that we broke even at the end of the 2020/21 financial year.
This welcome development reflects the special circumstances of the pandemic over the past 12 months. Yet it also vindicates the decision by NHS England to lift us out of financial special measures at the end of 2020.
The draft figures will be audited externally before being confirmed in the annual accounts later this year.
Although we spent more this year than ever before – over £1.6bn – some of the extra costs of responding to Covid-19 were reimbursed by NHS England. This included the costs of supplying Personal Protective Equipment and extra ventilators for critically-ill patients. In addition, we were reimbursed for running the temporary NHS London Nightingale hospital and the Newham Vaccination Centre, both at the Excel conference centre.
We also received funds for virus testing our staff and repayment for outsourcing routine operations to the independent sector at NHS rates when we had to cancel elective procedures.
We had to recruit more permanent staff, as well. In particular we spent more on staffing than we expected, following the creation of the Queen Elizabeth Unit (QEU) for critically-ill Covid-19 patients at the Royal London.
Hardev Virdee, our chief finance officer, said: “This was a tricky year for financial planning. Although all providers received a Covid top-up for the first six months of the year, it was withdrawn for the second half. At one point we forecasted a £10m deficit, but we worked closely with colleagues across north east London to manage the pressures together and break even at the end of the day.”
We also received £122m from the Treasury for infrastructure investment, which when combined with over £6m in donations meant our capital programme was double the size of previous years. This included over £40m on Covid-related projects, like the cost of fitting out the QEU.