By Rufus Pickles - Local Democracy Reporter
After what Isle of Wight hospital bosses called “a summer which felt more like a winter”, the NHS Trust’s new chief, Penny Emerit, also Managing Director of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU NHS), says some ‘difficult decisions’ will have to be taken to reduce spending.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has experienced unexpected pressure on its services and has carried out fewer elective operations than expected, a meeting of health chiefs heard. In some cases, patients were treated in corridors.
This financial year, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust has a deficit of £17.6 million. Compared to what was expected, it is £3.5 million worse off. Providing cover for strike action by medical staff, inflation and increased demand for acute services are being blamed for the overspend, by the trust’s executive leaders.
Ms Emerit had already announced ‘transformation programmes’ for urgent care, local care, hospital discharges and elective surgeries. Now a newly-created financial recovery board will look at redesigning services and cutting the money spent on its workforce, including on agency staff.
Earlier this year, the Island’s acute services merged with PHU NHS Trust, in what NHS England called the ‘logical next step’ to help tackle long-standing challenges when it comes to delivering healthcare to Islanders.
The Island’s NHS Trust controversially handed over £10 million to its Portsmouth counterpart in 2021 to provide two new wards with 72 beds at Queen Alexandra Hospital. The sum was more than 20 per cent of a £48 million ‘windfall’ for the Island’s NHS Trust announced by the government in 2019. The IW NHS Trust initially refused to provide information on how many Islanders were being treated at Portsmouth, but after the IW Observer challenged them under Freedom of Information laws it was disclosed that, as at September 2022, only 18 Islanders a month were being treated at Portsmouth.
The two trusts also share the same chairman, Mellony Poole, and the majority of IW NHS Trust board members live on the mainland.
Isle of Wight Observer 
Mal Butler