HOSPITAL chiefs in Barrow are predicting a colossal multi-million pound deficit by the end of the financial year – as news emerges the NHS is entering its bleakest cash crisis ever.

The trust at the helm of Furness General Hospital could plunge into the red by £160m by 2020/21 if no action is taken, contributing to a potential nationwide health funding black hole of £20bn.

Bosses are now being forced to look into rationalising some services to make ends meet as part of a strict NHS-wide cost savings drive.

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NHS Improvement, the body set up to oversee change within the health system, ordered all hospital chief executives to submit a plan for rationalising back office and pathology functions last month.

Controversial cuts and closures of some units, hospitals and types of non-emergency healthcare across the country are now being considered by Whitehall mandarins with an announced expected by the Department of Health this autumn.

It is not yet known whether the axe will fall upon services provided by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust – the organisation in charge of FGH, in Dalton Lane.

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Yesterday, a spokesman for NHS Improvement said: "It is an essential part of the planning process for local areas to identify which services could be unsafe, under-used or unsustainable.

"It is absolutely right that decisions on the future of health services are taken locally in consultation with the people who use those services.

"That planning process is still going on and no decisions have been taken."

In recent papers presented to UHMBT's board of directors, the local heath economy, which includes all types of healthcare in south Cumbria and north Lancashire, was said to be carrying a deficit this year of around £87m.

By the end of June – just two months into the financial year – UHMBT had recorded a deficit of £13.6m – £8.5m worse than predicted.

However, finance boss and UHMBT's deputy director Aaron Cummins stated this was partly because the trust was still waiting to receive money promised by the government through the local price modification scheme.

A report to the board states: "At the end of June the trust had a deficit of £13.6m compared to a planned deficit of £5.1m, £8.5m worse than planned.

"The LPM application has not yet been finalised and agreed and is the main reason for this variance."

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