A new finance boss has been parachuted in to save a debt-ridden health trust which is under “unprecedented” pressure.

Tim Glenn has joined East Kent Hospitals Foundation Trust (EKHT) as interim chief financial officer on a one-year-secondment from a Cambridge hospital, and will bring with him “significant support” to tackle a deficit of almost £60 million.

A meeting of the trust’s board of directors on November 2, heard that the institution is running at a deficit of £59.3 million, compared to the planned deficit of £40.9m by this point in the year.

EKHT runs Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, as well as sites in Canterbury,Folkestone and Dover.

Non-executive director Richard Oirschot said: “As a result of the current adverse performance and the lack of progress on the trust improvement programme, delivery of the 23/24 financial deficit of £72m will not be achieved.

“The trust is in the process of preparing a revised forecast.”

The trust runs to a planned deficit and was meant to be at £72 million by April 2024.

Stewart Baird, chairman of the board, said: “Undoubtedly we are not going to achieve our planned deficit.”

Meanwhile, documents prepared ahead of the meeting show that the trust submitted “a request for exceptional working capital for £25.7m to NHSE in October”, which is the value required to clear “relevant outstanding creditor balances.”

A trust spokesman has confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that it will be getting the funding.

During the meeting, directors heard that Mr Glenn has been appointed on a one-year secondment from Royal Papworth Hospital Trust in Cambridge.

Mr Baird went on: “He’s also bringing with NHS England support a significant support package which will see additional resources brought into the trust to help us really get these financials back into a position that’s more acceptable.

“The pressures we’re under are unprecedented and I don’t use this language lightly.”

‘Undoubtedly we are not going to achieve our planned deficit...’

The chairman said the number of cases coming through the trust’s emergency departments is “extraordinarily high,” adding extra financial pressure.

Interim director of finance Michelle Stevens told the board that £2.6 million of their £18.4m overspend is from an unplanned pay award for staff which the trust wasn’t compensated for, and another £1.5m is a result of strike action.

She said that the driver of the bloating deficit is “predominantly” the failure to deliver on planned savings.

“That’s where the additional resources that are coming in are going to be focusing over the latter part of this financial year and looking forward to the next couple of years as well to help us break even,” she said.

After the financial woes came to light some months ago the trust instituted stricter controls on recruitment to non-clinical jobs, and reducing use of agency workers.

During the meeting, Ms Stevens said the trust has seen a “significant” reduction in using agency staff.

The William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Buckland Hospital in Dover and Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone, are all of part of EKHT.

When coffers are empty, NHS trusts have their spending re-forecasted through a process called the National Protocol working with NHS England, and new cash is made available.

In 2012 the South London NHS Healthcare Trust, which ran three hospitals, was scrapped in the face of financial woes.

It was placed in administration after accumulating debts of almost £150 million, and it was divvied up between other NHS bodies and private companies.

It's rare for NHS trusts to fall into such a situation, but when facing especially severe financial woes they can be placed into administration, special measures, or scrapped and their functions taken up by other NHS bodies instead.