As you maybe aware we are in Turnaround with the aim of making savings, working out better ways to be efficient and still delivering quaility care with compassion.

We are currently forecasting a £22M deficit against a plan of £20M. This is due to us being unable to do the level of activity that we had planned for and because we have invested in additional medical bed capacity to ensure we are prepared for winter and the staff costs associated with having these.

We need to do everything we can to bring our spend back in line with our plan and achieve a £20M deficit. If we don’t we will have no contingency funds available and will be unable to invest in anything else.

We are however currently forecasting to deliver £16M of savings. This is fantastic and thank you to everyone for their contribution to this. We know it is not easy.

For 2016/17 we need a plan for £14M savings. To date we have identified £12M. We all need to think differently about how we deliver care, who we can work with and what opportunities there are.

All ideas are very welcome and if you have an idea and don’t think it is being heard then tell us.