FORMER health chiefs have been criticised in a report into the finances of the trust which runs the county’s major hospitals which saw a “surprise” deterioration from a forecasted £5.6million surplus to a £26.6million deficit.

The independent review was carried out by Deloitte in a bid to uncover how the situation at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust arose, how it went unnoticed for so long and who was responsible for the issue.

Released today, the report lays the blame at the feet of the former chief executive finance director and chairman as well as the board of directors for ‘failing to recognise’ the problem and neither sufficiently challenging nor scrutinising financial information.

Following the revelation in September, a raft of changes were made to the board including the appointment of Peter Lachecki as chairman who along with, chief executive Deborah Lee, are described by Deloitte as bringing “energy” and a “fresh perspective” to the trust.

Ms Lee took up the role in June 2016 replacing Dr Frank Harsent who had held the role since 2007 and who is criticised in the review as ‘actively curtailing director challenge’.

Responding to the review, she said: “We are a very different organisation today compared to a year ago, not only in terms of culture and leadership but also in respect of our governance systems and processes and how we report financial information to the board and its committees.

“I believe that we have created a solid platform on which to build our future success.”

The chief executive and chairman are described as being ‘proactive’ in tackling issues at the trust and the publication of the review follows the publication of a Care Quality Commission report earlier this month which found that improvements to care provided by the trust had since receiving a ‘requires improvement’ rating in 2015.

Mr Lachecki said: “While the board deeply regrets the previous failings in governance, I am pleased that we are publishing this independent report today because it is an important step in ensuring that something like this can never happen again.

“The report describes very openly and honestly how we found ourselves in the position that we did but more importantly it sets out what we are doing going forward to recover the position and acknowledges the good progress achieved to date.”

In an action plan published by the trust in response to the review, it says work to address 14 of the 19 recommendations put forward by Deloitte has been completed, with work underway in a further four and the trust not accepting one of the improvement suggestions.

The trust ended the last financial year with an £18million operational deficit compared to the September forecast of a £26.6million deficit.

Speaking about the financial improvement, Mr Lachecki added: “We’ve been able to do this because of sound planning and the engagement of our staff in addressing our overspending.

“The recent CQC ratings show that we can do this while continuing to improve the quality of services delivered to our patients and their families.

“I firmly believe that excellent quality of care and good financial management go hand in hand.”

He added that the trust is aiming to return to a breakeven position by April 2019.