April 14, 2020 4.47 pm This story is over 46 months old

More than £500m of debt written off at Lincolnshire’s hospitals

A fresh financial start

More than half a billion pounds of historic debt has been written off at hospitals trusts in Greater Lincolnshire.

The government cancelled a total of £588 million from both United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.

It comes as part of Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s plan to scrap £13.4 billion of historic NHS debt across the nation in a bid to help trusts financially as they look to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Health and Social Care cleared the debt at trusts across the country as of April 1.

Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, made the announcement during a government press briefing. Picture: UK Prime Minister Twitter.

ULHT, which runs hospitals in Grantham, Lincoln and Boston, has had £377,859,000 written off by government.

Included in the figures is £342,388,000 in revenue debt and £35,521,000 in capital debt.

It is hoped the move will save £2.5 million for the trust in 2020/21, which bosses say will help it “return to a long-term financially sustainable position.”

Paul Matthew, ULHT Director of Finance and Digital, said: “This is fantastic news for the trust and the people of Lincolnshire, as the burden of historic debt is removed.

“The trust can now focus on the future and delivery of its integrated improvement plan.”

Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby. Picture: Calvin Robinson.

Meanwhile, NLaG, which runs Scunthorpe and Grimsby hospitals, has seen £210,597,000 cleared from its historic debt.

A total of £199,895,000 in revenue debt and £10,702,000 in capital debt was written off.

James Hayburn, Interim Director of Finance at NLaG, said: “As a trust that has been in financial special measures for a number of years we very much welcome this announcement.

“Looking to the future, our hospitals need substantial investment, particularly in terms of our estate.

“We have been working closely with partner organisations to develop a more financially sustainable organisation and this announcement puts us in a much stronger position to be able to achieve this.”

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