NHS in England racks up record-breaking deficit

New government figures have shown the NHS in England overspent by 2.45 billion pounds in the 2015-16 fiscal year.

This represents the largest deficit in the history of the NHS, with the figure coming in 461 million pounds worse than anticipated. It is almost three times bigger than the 822 million pound overspend the year before, and more than 20 times the 115 million pound deficit from 2013-14.

According to analysis from NHS Improvement, providers remain under pressure from further increases in demand for care, issues with discharging fit patients and high costs, particularly for agency staff. This is leading to waiting time targets being missed.

An unprecedented 21 million emergency patients were seen last year, highlighting the scale of the challenge. In total, 65 percent of the 240 providers monitored reported a deficit, with the majority of these being acute trusts.

Despite this, it was noted that the sector as a whole made 2.9 billion pounds in efficiency savings between April 2015 and March 2016.

Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement, said: "The key now is for us all to work together to make the necessary improvements in 2016/17, to reduce any variations in the quality of care for patients, and to bring the NHS provider sector back into financial balance."