HOSPITALS across Sussex are almost £100 million in the red as they battle to cope with patient demand, high drug costs and staff shortages.

The county’s three main hospital trusts have all ended the last financial year with a deficit of £97 million between them.

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has the highest overspend of £48 million while Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals stands at £45 million.

Both amounts are higher than each trust had planned for and has sparked concerns about the pressures they will continue to face over the coming months.

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust fared the best with a planned deficit of £4.8 million.

The news comes as it emerged NHS trusts across England are forecasting a combined record-breaking deficit of £2.45 billion.

Unions have said years of underfunding in real terms for the NHS has helped lead to the current problems locally and nationally.

Other issues have included the need to pay for expensive agency and temporary nurses, doctors and other frontline staff to cover shifts because of a national shortage of nurses and medical personnel.

Hospitals have also been under pressure to open up extra beds to cope with the numbers.

Delays in discharging patients because of problems in finding community beds or arranging care in their own homes has also added to the strain.

There has also been a rise in the costs of drugs and to add to the pressure, trusts must save about five per cent of their annual budget.

A spokesman for East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said it had ended the year more than £12 million in deficit than planned and agency costs were a factor.

He said: "We have undertaken an extensive recruitment drive to employ more nurses to improve continuity of care and reduce our agency spend.

"Between March to June more than 100 new nurses will join us with an additional 22 newly qualified nurses starting with us having recently completed their training."

The Government has capped agency spending, with new hourly price caps limiting the amount of money various types of agency staff working in the NHS can earn, but hospitals say they are struggling to keep to the limits because demand is still high.

NEW PROGRAMME AIMS TO IMPROVE NHS TRUST’S FINANCES

A BUSY hospital trust is one of 16 across the country to be selected to join a special programme to help improve its finances.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust will be working with NHS Improvement to find ways to make savings and gain financial stability. The programme will also share innovative approaches, tools and lessons learnt with the rest of the NHS.

Teams of experts will be jointly selected by the trust and NHS Improvement and brought in to offer skills and experience to build on existing financial improvement measures.  The appointed experts will be paid partly according to the savings they make.

The programme is likely to cost around £25 million nationally and will save the NHS about £50 million in the first year alone.

The 16 trusts were chosen on the basis of where NHS Improvement felt intensive support would have the most impact. More NHS providers will be brought in to the programme as part of a second wave later in the year.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which ended the last financial year £45 million in deficit, runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Sussex Eye Hospital and Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton.

It also runs Princess Royal Hospital and Hurstwood Park in Haywards Heath.