EAST Cambridgeshire s new health provider expects to be more than £52 million in the red by the end of next week, despite making savings of more than £30 million. Health chiefs are unable to say whether the giant debt will impact on health care as it will
EAST Cambridgeshire's new health provider expects to be more than £52 million in the red by the end of next week, despite making savings of more than £30 million.
Health chiefs are unable to say whether the giant debt will impact on health care as it will all depend on how quickly the deficit needs to be repaid.
The debt has arisen after health providers across the county merged last October to form the new Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust.
The now defunct East Cambridgeshire and Fenland Primary Care Trust balanced its books before it was shut down, but most of the debt was inherited from City and South Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trusts.
A quarter of the deficit was money the trust failed to recover from Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital for unbudgeted patient treatment before new controls were agreed.
PCT chief executive Chris Banks said: "What we are working on now is how to deal with the debt.
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