GLOUCESTERSHIRE Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been put in special measures following an investigation into its financial governance found “very serious failings”.

The trust was forced to take out a £20million loan last month after a planned £5.3million surplus for the end of the financial year was revised to a deficit of £11.1million.

Two other trusts have been put into special measures on yesterday (Monday 17): East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

As part of financial special measures, the trust agrees a rapid recovery plan with NHS Improvement.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that they were committed to getting the trust back on a firm financial footing

The trust wrote in a statement: "The Board deeply regrets the necessity for this review but has accepted that the circumstances reflect a serious failure of financial governance and has committed to publicly sharing the findings and recommendations of this review.

"Patients are being reminded that services will continue to run as normal."

Deborah Lee, chief executive of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The Board fully recognises the scale of the financial challenges facing the Trust and the seriousness of the concerns surrounding the historical financial governance arrangements.

“We firmly believe that excellent quality of care and good financial health go hand in hand and this will form a key plank of our recovery plan; I am already heartened by the extent to which our staff have engaged with and begun to rise to this challenge."

Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement, said: “The five trusts who are already in Financial Special Measures have responded well, and we’ve been able to work together to identify around £100 million extra in savings.

“However, the three providers going into Financial Special Measures are causing significant concern.

“They’ve agreed savings targets locally but are a long way from meeting them.

“We also need to be able to rely upon good financial governance in every provider, so the problems unearthed at Gloucestershire are a real concern.

“The financial performance of these three trusts has simply not been good enough and so we’re sending in some targeted support to identify what the problem is, and help them fix it.”

NHS Improvement confirmed that there were no concerns regarding patients or care for the Gloucestershire foundation trust because it was a purely financial matter.