THE NHS Foundation Trust which oversees Musgrove Park Hospital predicts it will lose £8.3m this year.

Now the health sector regulator Monitor is taking action on behalf of patients at Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust after finding problems with the trust’s finances.

Following its investigation into the trust’s finances, Monitor has reasonable grounds to suspect the trust is in breach of its licence to provide NHS services.

Whilst its recovery plan aims to reduce the deficit, the trust believes there is a risk it may get worse.

It currently lacks robust plans to tackle the deterioration.

The regulator has asked the trust to put into action both short and long term measures to recover its finances and ensure they remain sustainable.

It has asked the trust to appoint a Turnaround Director who will support and challenge the trust as it makes the required improvements.

Paul Streat, regional director at Monitor, said: “We’re concerned that the trust is losing money and hasn’t yet developed the right plans to tackle its financial problems.

"These problems are fairly recent. We are stepping in early to ensure that the trust can quickly get its finances back on track.

“The trust will also be appointing a Turnaround Director who will use their expertise to help the trust Board make the improvements needed.

"We are confident that with this support it can recover its finances and continue to provide quality care to patients in Somerset.”

The regulator will closely monitor the trust’s progress against its financial recovery plan, and will take further action if necessary for patients.

Dr Sam Barrell, chief executive at Musgrove, said: “Musgrove Park Hospital – like the overwhelming majority of acute trusts in England - is forecasting a deficit this year, after reporting a surplus in 2014/15.

“We have been seeing unprecedented demand for our services, including a 10 percent year on year rise in emergency medical admissions to our hospital. This level of demand is not sustainable for our health system.

“We are rising to the challenge by looking at our services across the hospital to make sure they are as efficient as possible.  We know that when we put the patient first and really scrutinise our processes, efficiencies follow.  We have already seen some real benefits to patients from this approach.

“We welcome the appointment of a further director as this will give us extra capacity to make swift progress on our short-term efficiency programme.

“Our focus is always on our patients first and foremost – on patient safety and the quality of our care.  That cannot and will not change.

“We are working with all our NHS partners on meeting the challenges the system is facing. We all acknowledge that we cannot stay as we are, given that we have no expectation that our income will rise in line with the increase in demand.   

“We also recognise that the current funding mechanism does not fully reflect the costs of providing services to a rural population such as Somerset’s, with a much higher than average proportion of older people.”