Patient numbers outstrip the Conquest budget

East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, together with Eastbourne's DGH, received 1 million more than budgeted from the Primary Care Trust (PCT) in each of the first five months of the year and 300,000 more in September.

It has no spare money left, having paid out its 2.4 million contingency fund for the year on staff pay awards, larger than expected energy bills and the cost of bringing in a new contract for speciality doctors and associate specialists.

The board of the trust expects patient demand to continue outstripping the level budgeted for and admits it does not have the capacity to cope.

The extra spend with the trust has been caused by a surge in emergency patients, with at least 2,000 more than expected in the first six months of the year, causing patients, already in hospital or admitted for the day, to have their procedures cancelled.

This is expensive for the hospital trust because booked patient operations and procedures are paid for by the PCT but it only receives 50 per cent of the cost for unplanned procedures if more than an agreed number are performed.

More patients than expected also means more money spent on drugs, clinical supplies, bedding, linen and the wages of extra doctors and nurses.

Overall, in the first six months of 2008/09, the trust's finance report showed it emerged with a surplus of 406,000 but this fell short of savings targets by 1,119,000.

It has set itself a target of making 17.1 million in savings this year, 14.9 million of which have been found and 2.3 million which still remain to be slashed from the budget.