Roy Lilley, former chairman of the old Homewood NHS Trust in Chertsey, Surrey – which later merged with Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust – and now an independent commentator on health service issues, said some impact on services would be “inevitable”.
“Clearly a chunk of money like £1.6m is going to have an impact on the trust’s ability to operate.
“The day-to-day running of the trust is, of course, difficult enough with all the financial pressures but to have this kind of money taken out of its revenue balances, it makes it even more difficult,” he said.
Mr Lilley – who has not worked for NUH – added: “It will certainly slow down some of the plans that they had in terms of improvements.”
“Generally it has a very bad effect, a big impact on the trust’s ability to respond,” he said.
Mr Lilley said it was possible for trusts to seek loans from the Department of Health of Social Care (DHSC) in the face of financial difficulty.
The BBC understands while NHS trusts are expected to meet their legal and financial obligations – including prosecution fines – they can access loans in some instances.
The trust’s annual budget is £1.8bn.