BASILDON Hospital’s debt is set to spiral to more than £20million.

The hospital trust is applying to the Department for Health for extra cash to survive February and March.

It comes as the hospital continues to experience huge pressures on A&E, but bosses say the financial situation is not affecting patient care.

Bob Holmes, acting trust chairman, in a report ahead of a board meeting this week, said: “The major issue of concern is the trust’s deteriorating financial position.

“The full effect of the increased staffing levels to address our quality issues is proving to beamuch larger loss than we had anticipated.

“This is due in no small part to the high level of emergency activity and initiatives to keep waiting lists under control.

“We have continued to put the patient ahead of our bottom line, but this will not be sustainable without external financial support from the Department of Health.”

Last month it emerged health watchdog Monitor is looking into the trust’s finances after it revealed a predicted end of year overspend of £14.2million, more than double the original estimate of £6.5million.

The latest report suggests the figure could be £23million.

Clare Panniker, chief executive, said in the report: “This level of overspend is not sustainable in the long term. We are working to review what action we need to take to resolve this.”

A spokesman for the trust insists standards are still high as bosses tackle the debt problem.

He said: “Our focus over the past two years has been on improving the quality of care we deliver to our patients – safety has been our absolute priority.

“Our success has seen us move out of special measures to being rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission.

“As part of this focus on quality we employed 200 additional frontline staff, which, of course, came at a cost.

“We are working with Monitor to address our financial position.”