THE University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust is expected to record a debt of £39.9m by the end of the financial year.

This, combined with North Cumbria's University Hospitals NHS Trust's expected £62.3m deficit, means that hospitals in Cumbria are in more debt than any other region in the country, according to NHS Improvement figures.

Aaron Cummins, deputy chief executive and director of finance at UHMBT, said that there has been a number of contributing factors to the debt.

"As with many other Trust’s across the country, growth in the deficit over the past year has been driven by a number of factors including: additional staffing to satisfy safe staffing guidance; premium costs of agency posts needed to deliver safe services; reduced funding available for winter pressures; the increased costs of outsourcing some activity to deliver national waiting time targets; and costs of responding to actions required for the Trust to come out of special measures.

The Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has now put a cost-cutting programme in place.

"While measures are being implemented to lower the Trust’s deficit, patient safety and care remains the top priority and will not be compromised," said Mr Cummins.