The hospital trust serving Brighton and Hove had one of the biggest deficits in the NHS in the past financial year, according to new figures.
An analysis by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) listed deficits totalling £770 million – with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals ending the 2016-17 financial year almost £70 million in the red.
The trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, is currently in both special measures and financial special measures.
A new top team took over from the start of the current financial year in April with a promise to deal with the deficit but without resorting to slash and burn tactics.
It has been suggested that the persistent deficits across the NHS suggest that hospitals are finding it hard to meet rising demand for care while their finances are being squeezed.
Cuts, cuts and more cuts, that’s what’s to blame, Tory austerity, and I’m sick of it. We have to start thinking, where does it end? Or will it even end before all our hospitals, schools etc have been ruined?