A SHORTFALL of £3.9m is being forecast for the end of the year by hospitals in County Durham and Darlington.

Just three months into the present financial year, in June, the hospitals NHS trust has reported a deficit of £906,000, which in May amounted to £1.1m.

Sue Jacques, director of finance, who last month recommended a freeze on earmarked reserves, told Monday's board meeting that such action could save more than £1m.

There was a shortfall in funding for the £2.6m consultant contract and ten out of the 24 hospital directorates reported overspends in excess of £100,000, while nine were struggling to meet cost improvement targets.

"Agency expenditure on medical and dental staff is significantly more than in the same period last year and is causing pressure on the staff budgets, as is the continued use of bank and agency nursing staff," she said.

At the same time, departments were not hitting their targets for daycase and elective in-patient and out-patient work, while too much work was being done on non-elective patients.

An action plan has been set up for the trauma and orthopaedics service trust-wide, which has forecast an £875,000 overspend, and a meeting is being held to discuss the £376,000 overspend forecast for anaesthetics at Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland general hospitals.