NHS faces biggest challenge “for many years” amid mounting deficits and declining morale

Hospitals and other NHS providers in England are set to post a record deficit of more than £800m (€1.1bn; $1.2bn) in 2014-15, says an analysis by the King’s Fund, a healthcare think tank.

In its latest quarterly monitoring report the fund warned that mounting deficits, worsening performance, and declining staff morale had left the NHS facing its biggest challenges “for many years.”1 It highlighted that the deficit is still being projected despite nearly £900m provided by the Treasury or switched from capital budgets to plug “the growing black hole in NHS finances.”

In the regular survey of trust …