SOUTHEND Hospital has reportedly paid out £1million to financial consultants to help it save money.

The hospital has hired accountancy firm Grant Thornton in a bid to save more than £7million.

Earlier this year, the Echo revealed bosses had spent £688,000 hiring consultant Kingsgate to advise them on saving money as the hospital’s debt spiralled. The deal was hailed a success, slashing £2.5million from its budget.

The hospital declined to confirm how much the new deal with Grant Thornton had cost when asked by the Echo - but a spokesman did not dispute the figure.

James O’ Sullivan, chief financial officer at Southend Hospital, said: “As part of a national Financial Improvement Programme, sponsored by NHS Improvement, we are working with a team from Grant Thornton who are reviewing our systems and processes to ensure Southend Hospital is working as efficiently and effectively as possible and to identify any further savings over that which the trust has already identified in its own cost improvement programme.

“Currently, our year-to-date cost improvement programme is £7.8m, £100,000 ahead of plan.”

Mr O’Sullivan, who is on a salary of £135,000, added: “Kingsgate helped the trust save £2.5 million. The Grant Thornton figure is commercially sensitive but the identified savings exceed their costs.”

Former consultant Norman Traub, a member of the Southend Keep our NHS Public campaign group, said underfunded hospitals are forced into extreme strategies to save money.

He said: “It is part of the madness of the whole system. Hospitals have been starved of funds because they have a tariff system where each treatment is costed. Over the years they have reduced the tariffs so NHS hospital trusts are being forced to tender on the basis of providing services at a cost lower than they receive in funding.

“Private hospitals are able to make a profit, but NHS hospitals have to turn to other measures.”

Southend is also working alongside Basildon and Broomfield, in Chelmsford, as part of the Success Regime. The combined current NHS deficit in mid and south Essex could rise to over £216 million by 2018/19.

BASILDON Hospital is also under pressure to cut costs and reduce its spiralling debt.

The hospital, which was subject to enforcement action for poor financial management, has budgeted for a further deficit of £29.9 million in 2016/17.

Basildon, Southend and Broomfield hospitals are working together to make savings as part of the Mid and South Essex Success Regime.

Clare Panniker, chief executive of Basildon Hospital, is leading a joint committee between the three hospitals as part of the regime to prevent an estimated £216 million deficit by 2018/19. It is hoped that this will get the system back into balance.

Basildon Hospital recruited hundreds of new medical staff after entering special measures in 2013, and is now rated good in all areas after a Care Quality Commission inspection last summer.

But the recruitment drive has been at a financial price, with the hospital receiving a Government bailout of £38.9million last year due to spiralling running costs.