the \u00a370 million budget gap faced by the trust next year and the \u00a328 million shortfall<\/a> it is set to end this financial year with in March present a difficult \u201cconundrum\u201d.<\/p>\nStephen Posey, the trust\u2019s chief executive, alongside other members of the board, stressed that the need to get a hold of the organisation\u2019s budget will not lead to a reduced focus on patient safety or quality of healthcare services.<\/p>\n
He said it is not an adversarial \u201cversus\u201d situation but was going to be a consistent effort to achieve a good balance between the two, apologising for any patients waiting too long to be seen or treated.<\/p>\n
Mr Posey said there would be \u201cno easy decisions\u201d in the years ahead and detailed that budget issues would take more than a year to resolve.<\/p>\n
Chris Sands, executive chief finance officer, said the organisation was in regular talks with NHS England over its budget issues and said key targets would be the amount of money spent on agency and bank staff (who fill support roles and vacant shifts) and would reduce \u201cdiscretionary\u201d pay \u2013 such as for overtime \u2013 on a \u201csafe basis\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Derby and Burton hospital trust is the third largest NHS provider in terms of elective (optional) treatments, the meeting was told, and was also facing a 2,000-patient increase in appointments.<\/p>\n
Its waiting list, as of December, includes 30 people who have waited more than 65 weeks for treatment \u2013 way in excess of a year. Three of these are children needing surgery, the meeting was told.<\/p>\n
Ian Lichfield, outgoing interim trust chair, said the organisation\u2019s financial position is under \u201csignificant pressure\u201d and must remain focused on \u201cdriving efficiencies while retaining patient safety\u201d with greater levels of accountability needed.<\/p>\n
He argued: \u201cWhen patients have to wait a long time for services, that is not compassionate care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prem Singh, returning trust chairman, said: \u201cThe challenges we know aren\u2019t going away. We will continue to face significant service pressures caused by increased demand and a growing waiting list while we juggle the huge financial pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have to make lots of difficult decisions. It is not going to be easy, but I am confident we will succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the NHS \u201cneeded to pull out the stops\u201d to overturn \u201cunacceptable delays to care, including himself, having recently waited more than 15 hours (8am to 11.30pm) – elsewhere in the NHS, not at UHDB – between being told he would be discharged, to receiving the medication that he needed to go home.<\/p>\n
Mr Posey said the trust was facing pressure this month from high demand for care with knock-on impacts on patient \u201cflow\u201d through the hospital, including discharge back home or to another care facility, along with ambulance handovers.<\/p>\n
He said staff showed flexibility, professionalism and resilience and thanked them for their efforts over the winter, reiterating that the trust was \u201cintently focused on providing the best possible care\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Posey said: \u201cMany of our patients will have waited longer than they should and I am really sorry for that. Reducing our waiting list is our absolute priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the financial position of the trust was being treated with the \u201cutmost seriousness\u201d by leadership and was \u201cincreasingly challenging\u201d.<\/p>\n
The \u00a370 million budget gap it faces next year represents five per cent of the trust\u2019s turnover (in excess of \u00a31 billion) Mr Posey said, which was the similar level as at other NHS organisations.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe key risks remain and are well understood and will be appropriately mitigated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Singh said he agreed that the financial position faced by the trust was \u201ceye-watering\u201d and said \u201cthere is a lot more we can do\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThese conundrums (between waiting lists and saving money) are real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Rawlings, executive chief people officer, said industrial action in the week before Christmas had left \u201ca lot of tired staff\u201d, which could not be ignored.<\/p>\n
Paran Govender, executive chief operating officer, said one in four patients visiting the trust\u2019s A&E departments waited more than 12 hours to be seen.<\/p>\n
She said the organisation would continue to stress to patients on waiting lists: \u201cWe haven\u2019t forgotten you, we know where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Govender said \u201ctwo-thirds\u201d of discharge delays rested with the hospital trust, not with providers such as the county or city council, other NHS organisations or the ambulance service.<\/p>\n
Mr Posey had detailed in a report written for the meeting: \u201cReduced reliance on premium solutions (e.g., weekend working and insourcing), supported by improvements in theatre productivity and outpatient flow, is helping stabilise costs while maintaining access and safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis demonstrates that we do have opportunities to deliver efficiencies without compromising quality, but it is clear that we must do more at pace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derby and Burton hospital leaders have sought to reassure patients 13:48, 13 Jan 2026Updated 16:29, 13 Jan 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[209510,35745,105,4348,211,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-burton","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-nhs","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115890334469515547","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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