Deficit in NHS provider sector triples in a year to £2.45bn

Providers of NHS services have amassed a £2.45bn (€3.2bn; $3.6bn) deficit in the past year, and although the scale of deficit is not as bad as feared, it has still almost tripled from the previous year (£834m).

Health policy experts have described the figures as unprecedented and said that the figure meant that the NHS’s overall deficit was about three times as high as the previous year’s, despite additional funding for the NHS and major efforts to boost efficiencies.

The figures, published on 20 May,1 show that for 2015-16 around two thirds (65%), or 157 of 240 NHS provider organisations, reported a deficit, most of which were acute care trusts. As well as …