The NHS Trust that runs Gloucestershire's hospitals has been taken out of special financial measures.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs Cheltenham General Hospital, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and services at Stroud Maternity Unit, has been in the red since 2016.

At the end of March it had a deficit of £32million – which was supposed to be £14.6million but a glitch in a new patient record system caused the figure to rise by £18million.

NHS Improvement now say the Trust is on plan to deliver its finances this year after it brought in a fresh executive team to lead its recovery.

In 2017 a review, published by Deloitte, criticised the culture of the trust’s board, and a lack of detailed questioning of the trust’s financial position by executive and non-executive directors.

It described a failure of the Trust’s former finance director, Helen Simpson, to keep the board informed of the Trust’s financial position, and incorrect accounting adjustments made to present the reported position more favourably.

The Deloitte review also stated: “We have assumed that the information provided to us by the Trust is complete, accurate and reliable; we have not independently audited, verified or confirmed their accuracy, completeness or reliability. In particular, no detailed testing regarding the accuracy of the financial information has been performed.”

The Trust discovered it was in £11.1million of debt in September 2016, despite months of believing it was turning over a surplus.

The fiasco meant the Trust went into financial special measures and it had to borrow £20million to ensure its services could continue.

Two years on and the Trust is now developing a long-term financial plan to cut its deficit further.

Peter Lachecki, Chair of the Trust, said: “This is a significant achievement on our Journey To Outstanding and the Trust Board would like to thank all of our staff who have helped to embed a culture of robust financial management whilst continuing to deliver increasingly high quality and sustainable patient services.

“We believe this decision is a vote of confidence in the Trust and whilst we still have more to accomplish, is a really positive milestone which positions us well for the delivery of our exciting vision for Gloucestershire Hospitals and the patients that we serve.”

Stephen Hay, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Regulation, NHS Improvement said: “I congratulate Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for their hard work over the past two years, which has now enabled us to remove them from being in special measures for finance. This reflects the hard work of all staff – from board level right through to the front line clinical staff and support teams – to really address the underlying financial issues of the organisation.

“There is still more to do, but we are confident the trust has the capability to continue to deliver its plan and work towards financial balance, as well as delivering high quality care for local patients.”