Debt write off at Taunton and Yeovil
From 1 April, the Government agreed to scrap over £13 billion of NHS debt nationally. The changes are intended to help provide financial support during the pandemic.
They will certainly help to lay a secure foundations for future of those NHS trusts selected to benefit. It should make all more financially sustainable.
Overall more than 100 NHS hospitals will be rid of their historic debt.
The Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust will have a total of £24.9m of debt written off. In Yeovil though the scale of the debt write off is even greater. Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will have just under £90m of debt forgiven.
The huge scale of debt underwriting their operations is alarming. The fact that these two relatively small NHS trusts at the heart of Somerset’s healthcare have been struggling with a debt mountain on this scale is a revelation in itself.
However neither RUH in Bath nor Somerset Partnership NHS Trust (now merged with The Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust) are to benefit.