Jo Topping, interim medical director at Liverpool Women's, comments: "We can reassure the public that the safety and quality of our services are not affected by Monitor’s investigation. Our recent Care Quality Commission inspection described the Trust as caring, effective and well-led and gave us an overall rating of 'good'. We are playing an active role in both the Healthy Liverpool Programme and the Mayor’s Health Commission to look at how health services can be improved and provided in a sustainable way for the people of Merseyside, now and for future
generations. Our services are here to stay and we will continue to provide the best possible care for women and families."
Vanessa Harris, director of finance at Liverpool Women's, adds: "We have been very open about the financial challenges that we face. We announced a planned deficit of £8m at the start of the year in April 2015, and we have in fact reduced this deficit in year to a plan of £7.3m. We cannot do any more to reduce our deficit this year, and this level of deficit means we need to apply for cash funding from the Department of Health to bridge the gap. Applying for this funding has
automatically triggered an investigation via our regulator Monitor.
"I would like to reassure the public that a number of external reports have already shown the Trust to be an efficient provider of services with good financial management. As people will know from media reports nationally, we are not alone with facing a deficit this year – there are many NHS Trusts facing much bigger deficits than we do. However we take this very seriously and staff have been working very hard to save money in every way we can. Unfortunately a number of
external factors beyond our control contribute to the position we are in, including the money that is paid to us to provide maternity services which doesn't cover their cost."