Croydon’s NHS Trust has been removed from financial special measures after it clawed back cash from spiralling staff costs, but the service remains more than £30 million in the red.

The trust was last year £32 million over budget, with the annual spend on temporary staff amounting to £24 million.

It was among the first five NHS Trusts in the country to be put in special measures, meaning its spending is monitored and tougher targets are set by the health service’s specialist team.

RELATED: Croydon's NHS trust and CCG both placed into special measures to tackle financial troubles

But, seven months later, Croydon NHS and Health Trust will no longer have its budgets supervised as savings are set to be made to cut its staggering deficit by £7 million this financial year.

John Goulston, chief executive of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, said: “To exit financial special measures in just seven months is to the credit of our staff who, along with the Trust Board, have worked tirelessly to find ways to increase efficiency and put forward ideas to cut costs without composing care.

“Our recovery plan was carefully developed, with all savings schemes checked by our senior clinicians to ensure that we do not compromise patient care or safety. “We are on track to reduce the Trust’s long-standing deficit by almost a quarter this [financial] year– but we know we need to keep a tight grip on money if we are to continue to make improvements.”

Croydon’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was last year also forced to review its spending and produce an implemented financial recovery plan.

NHS England wanted the CCG to limit its in-year deficit for 2016/17 to £4.2m and its cumulative deficit to £47.9m.

The borough’s NHS Trust must cut its financial deficit by almost half in the next financial year, and by a further £9 million in 2018/19.

Mr Goulston added: “This will not be easy and will require everyone in the Trust to find ways to do more within the resources we have.

“Some of this will require a change in how we work – we have an advanced electronic patient record system but we still churn through an estimated 17.5 million sheets of paper every year. Becoming ‘paper-lite’ could save £1m a year.

“Others will require a change in the way we work, including joining-up with our partners in primary care, the local authority, mental health and the voluntary sector to care for the growing number of people in our borough.”

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