NHS Ayrshire and Arran has failed to make inroads into its £5m-a-month overspend almost half way through the year.

In August, it was reported that the board had overspent by £16.6m between April and June.

This overspend trajectory has continued throughout July and August, with NHS Ayrshire and Arran Finance Director, Derek Lindsay, telling the board that there was a deficit of £26.6m after five months of the year.

That is close to the same sum as the total brokerage funding of £27.7m offered by the Scottish Government for the entire year.

The health board has also been tasked with making £26.5m of recurrent savings in order to balance the books.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran says that it still aims to meet its targeted budget deficit of £53.5m by the end of March 2025.

Mr Lindsay told colleagues: “In the second half of the year, we will reduce the unfunded beds and our use of agency staff in order to achieve the planned deficit of £53.5 million.

“The Scottish Government expect us to improve and get closer to the £27.7 million of brokerage which is available this year. That is a very significant challenge for us.

“So after five months, the acute division is overspent by £13.7m. We highlight the unfunded beds, where some progress in closing beds was made in April and May.

“However, this was reversed in June, July and August, partly due to COVID outbreaks affecting, affecting patients and staff.

“So as an example, ward 3EF, which closed in May - that was an unfunded ward and had to reopen in June due to COVID outbreaks elsewhere.”

Mr Lindsay referred to the planned reduction in patients’ length of stay.

He said: “These haven’t been achieved as we had hoped and therefore that’s a significant reason why we haven’t been able to close those unfunded beds as we had planned.”

Mr Lindsay also pointed out that the failure to close wards and reduce beds has played a part in the projected shortfall in achieving its £24.13m target for ‘cash releasing’ cuts and savings.

It is projected to achieve around £19.2m of those savings by the end of the financial year.

The report also points out that the national agreement of an uplift to Service Level Agreements of higher than the general allocation funding uplift for 2024/25 would further pressure, while there is unlikely to be any additional funding for winter pressures, with the possibility of increased overspend in acute services.

As previously warned, the failure to meet budget targets could see NHS Scotland take direct intervention, sending in a ‘transformation team’ to address the finances.