THE trust in charge of Barrow's hospital has been forced to take out a series of loans over the past year because the Department of Health failed to hand over a promised £35m in funding for 11 months.
The interest alone on the loans in question totals £600,000 for the 2016/17 year, the Evening Mail can reveal.
Finance bosses at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which runs cash-strapped Furness General, are holding talks with NHS England to establish who should be responsible for paying the accrued interest.
The money owed to the trust was part of a local price modification tariff - cash given to the area's hospitals in recognition of the extra cost of providing services across a wide geographical area.
Aaron Cummins, UHMBT finance chief and deputy chief executive, said: "One area of exposure now for us is because the LPM landed so late in the financial year.
"We have been relying on overdrafts and loans for the majority of the year and the exposure on those loans is now at £600,000.
"We are now in talks about this because that interest is an unmitigated gap for us."
A total of £29m of the £35m LPM promised to the trust was paid by NHS England.
The remaining £6m must be paid to the hospitals by Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group.
Mr Cummins added: "Having said Cumbria CCG would pay over the LPM as directed, they don't have the cash to support the payment. We are now in discussions to look at that."
UHMBT, which also runs Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, has achieved its government-set savings target of £12m this year.
It is set to record a predicted operational deficit of £17m for 2016/17.
Last week it emerged the trust's local price modification money could be cut from £35m to £20m for - leaving a further £15m black hole in the budget.
No-one from NHS England was available for comment on the matter, despite a number of requests.
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