Cost of living crisis: Sheffield hospitals facing energy crisis as concerns for patient services emerge

Some NHS trusts will have to find as much as £2m extra a month this winter because their energy bills will be two to three times higher than last year’s, an investigation by The British Medical Journal has found, and Sheffield Children’s Hospital expects its bills to increase 130 per cent.

John Williams, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust’s chief finance officer and deputy chief executive, said: “Unfortunately over recent months the cost of our electricity and gas has increased significantly, as it has for domestic users and other businesses, and is likely to continue increasing by a considerable amount in the future.”

The Trust has been able to curtail its costs to some extent because it is locked into current prices with its energy supplier until March 31 2023.

Sheffield Children’s Hospital’s energy crisis fears

Mr Williams added: “We budgeted for the additional costs as part of our plan for 2022-23, but ultimately this is still NHS resource that could otherwise have been used to support the delivery of patient care.”

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which run the Northern General, Hallamshire, Jessop Wing and Weston Park Hospitals, says at present no services are impacted and is looking at plans to mitigate any impact. It expects a clearer picture to emerge in the coming weeks.

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A paper, published in the BMJ found some hospitals expect an increase in electricity and gas costs of upwards of 200 per cent.

It says that patient care could be compromised without action from the Government to protect the health service from the “eye-watering” increases in energy costs.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust told the journal it was expecting to pay an extra £2 million a month for electricity and gas in January and February 2023 compared with the same months this year. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust told the BMJ it has budgeted for a 214 per cent increase.

‘Longer waiting times’

Senior acute lead at the NHS Confederation Rory Deighton said: “This isn’t an abstract problem, as the gap in funding from rising inflation will either have to be made up by fewer staff being employed, longer waiting times for care, or other areas of patient care being cut back.

“The new prime minister must provide a top-up in this autumn’s budget or any emergency budget they hold to make up the shortfall. The NHS needs at least £4bn to make up for inflation during this year alone, and that is before we face a winter of even higher wholesale energy prices.

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“A failure to properly compensate the NHS for inflation will only heighten pressure on our health service as we move towards a winter that we know will be particularly challenging this year.”

Steven Fitzpatrick, chief executive of Ovo Energy, has put forward a 10 point plan for the Government to subsidise soaring bills. The Government says it is preparing to deliver extra support as soon as the new Prime Minister is in place.

“If we don’t use every available moment over the next 12 weeks to solve this we’re going to see a winter like never before. with people going hungry, going cold and the NHS being overwhelmed by the health impacts of the energy crisis this winter.”

The Star is campaigning for Liz Truss to:

Stop the cost of energy from going above double the levels seen last winter, for both households and businesses;

Help those on prepayment meters so they are no longer facing higher energy prices;

Tell energy companies that they cannot cut off the supply to any homes this winter if people fall behind on their bills.