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

By David Kessen

Published 6th Sep 2022, 00:05 BST

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Sheffield’s hospitals are facing major pressures due to the energy crisis –and there are fears it could hit patient services.

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.

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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.”

Sheffield’s hospitals are facing major pressures due to the energy crisis – and there are fears it could hit patient services. Sheffield Children’s Hospital, pictured, expects its bills to increase 130 per cent.

Sheffield’s hospitals are facing major pressures due to the energy crisis – and there are fears it could hit patient services. Sheffield Children’s Hospital, pictured, expects its bills to increase 130 per cent.

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.

The funding, announced by the National Institute for Health Research this week (28 February 2022), will go to the Sheffield NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) based at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and run in partnership with the University of Sheffield.

The funding, announced by the National Institute for Health Research this week (28 February 2022), will go to the Sheffield NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) based at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and run in partnership with the University of Sheffield.

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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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