Health trust finances: London

OTHER REGIONS East Midlands East of England North East North West South of England South East South West West Midlands West of England Yorks & Humber

NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in London have combined debts of more than £240m, a BBC News website investigation has found.

All 74 trusts in London were contacted in January and asked what their current financial status was.

The results are below, with explanations for how some trusts came to be in that position, or measures taken to tackle any problems. Minus figures show a deficit, figures without a minus sign indicate a trust which has a surplus or is breaking even.

Several trusts who revealed debts said they expected to break even by the end of the financial year in March.

LONDON HEALTH TRUST FINANCES
HEALTH TRUST	SURPLUS/ DEBT (£)	IMPACT/ EXPLANATION
Barking and Dagenham PCT	0
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust	-7,700,000	Expects to break even by end of financial year, helped by cutting spending on temporary staff and reducing unduly long lengths of stay for patients
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust	-10,400,000	Has strict controls on replacing staff and on employing agency staff, has put strict controls on purchasing and closed some beds
Barnet PCT	1,400,000
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust	-700,000	Expects to break even by end of financial year
Barts and The London NHS Trust	0
Bexley Care Trust	-3,500,000	Trust predicts the deficit could reach £4.6m by end of financial year
Brent PCT	0
Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust	-12,000,000	Trust says it is actively working to cut its debt but with no impact on services for patients
Bromley PCT	-1,702,000	Expecting to break even by end of financial year
Camden & Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust	0
Camden PCT	0
Central and North West London Mental Health NHS Trust	0
Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust	2,100,000	Surplus has risen by about £2m since end of the last financial year
City and Hackney Teaching PCT	0
Croydon PCT	0
Ealing Hospitals NHS Trust	-979,000	Expects to break even by end of financial year
Ealing PCT	1,200,000
East London and The City Mental Health NHS Trust	0
Enfield PCT	-2,000,000	Trust says "best case" would be to break even by end of financial year
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust	-800,000	Expects to break even by end of financial year, helped by initiatives such as bringing maintenance contracts back in house
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust	0
Greenwich Teaching PCT	-483,000
Guy's and St Thomas	0
Hammersmith and Fulham PCT	450,000
Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust	-35,300,000	£19.1m of debt is from Ravenscroft Hospital, which trust also runs. Says major improvements have been made to efficiency regarding things such as patients' length of stay, hospital-acquired infections and drug prescription. Expects the workforce to have dropped by 300 by March
Haringey Teaching PCT	-425,000	Trust predicts the deficit could reach £1.178m by end of financial year
Harrow PCT	-500,000	Trust predicts the deficit could reach £3.4m by end of financial year
Havering PCT	0
Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust	1,700,000
Hillingdon PCT	-25,574,000	Savings have been cancelled out by increased hospital costs. Aiming to cut inappropriate admission to hospital through accident and emergency and has looked at switching patients to cheaper drugs. A recruitment freeze has been in place for several months, but is lifted if vacancies affect patients
Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust	0
Hounslow PCT	-8,800,000
Islington PCT	-633,000
Kensington and Chelsea PCT	-20,900,000
King's College Hospital NHS Trust	0
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust	-2,250,000	Expects to break even by end of financial year
Kingston PCT	-7,900,000
Lambeth PCT	0
Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust	-7,000,000	Has imposed a recruitment freeze, made about 20 redundancies and reduced clinical divisions from five to three where duplication of roles was identified
Lewisham PCT	-1,920,000	Trust plans to cut debt by vacancy savings and reducing use of agency staff
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust	1,300,000
Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust	-6,000,000	Expects debt to reach £9m by end of financial year. Has reduced spending on agency staff and is aiming to reduce length of stay for patients, enabling more people to be treated as day cases, using fewer beds
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Trust	1,200,000
Newham Healthcare NHS Trust	0
Newham PCT	0
North East London Mental Health NHS Trust	0
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust	-5,000,000	Has introduced assessment of non-emergency patients to cut risk of cancelling operations at last minute because they are medically unfit for surgery
North West London Hospitals NHS Trust	-25,500,000	Looking at 15 areas where it is thought savings can be made, including efficient use of operating theatres, better deals from suppliers and avoiding unnecessarily long hospital stays for patients. Some of the debt has been in place since previous financial year
Oxleas NHS Trust	0
Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust	-18,900,000	Looking to break even by 2007/2008, without impacting on patient care
Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust	-10,000,000
Redbridge PCT	0
Richmond and Twickenham PCT	1,100,000
Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital NHS Trust	1,600,000
Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust	0	Was £10m in debt a year ago
Royal Marsden NHS Trust	2,000,000	Surplus of £2m will used to fund developments in the coming year
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust	0
South London and Maudsley Mental Health NHS Trust	111,000
South West London & St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust	0
Southwark PCT	-860,000	Expects to break even at end of financial year
St George's Healthcare NHS Trust	-12,500,000	Has closed about 100 beds and aims to reduce time patients spend in hospital, where clinically appropriate
St Mary's NHS Trust	0
Sutton and Merton PCT	-3,200,000	"Optimistic" of breaking even by end of financial year. Has cut spending on agency staff and is sharing services such as accounting with other NHS organisations
Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust	0
Tower Hamlets PCT	0
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust	-17,400,000	Debt has been added to by the terror attacks in London in July 2005, which the trust estimates cost it £2m, and the building of a new teaching hospital
Waltham Forest PCT	0
Wandsworth PCT	-1,090,000
West London Mental Health NHS Trust	0
West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust	-2,200,000	Trust has cut its deficit by £3.4m over the past year
Westminster PCT	1,000,000
Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust	0
Whittington Hospital NHS Trust	-1,500,000	Reducing spending on agency staff by recruiting more permanent staff
TOTAL	-240,455,000