WARRINGTON Hospital is facing a funding shortfall of more than £13m.

The hospital trust is expected to post a deficit of £16.8m for the end of the 2017/18 financial year - £13.1m higher than the planned deficit of £3.7m.

Key factors for the inflated deficit have been a £4.6m shortfall in sustainability and transformation funding as well as £5.3m of cost improvements not being delivered.

Meanwhile, the suspension of spinal surgery at Warrington Hospital in October cost the trust £2.3m.

A total of £700,000 was also lost due to the cancellation of procedures during the winter.

Additional pay costs, including agency staff, added £3.5m to the deficit.

The trust has taken out loans in order to fund the deficit and pay its suppliers.

Andrea McGee, director of finance and commercial development at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The 2017/18 planned deficit of £3.7m presented a significant challenge to the trust, with the main areas of risk being the recurrent achievement of the 2016/17 control total, the resolution of contract negotiations, the ability to switch off unfunded pressures - mainly pay - and the ability to achieve a £10.7m cost improvement programme.

"The plan assumed access to sustainability and transformational funding of £7m.

"Loans have been required to fund the deficit and to enable the trust to pay supplies in an appropriate timeframe."

The trust was also hit with £1.8m of fines and penalties, but received an addition £5.1m in winter pressures funding and public dividend capital.

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will undergo 'internal mitigations' in order to reduce the deficit during the final month of the financial year.

Ms McGee added: "The trust is working on internal mitigations to reduce expenditure in the last month of the financial year.

"Looking towards next year and beyond, the trust is working in collaboration with external providers and commissioners within the sustainability and transformation plan to seek to address clinical and financial constraints through collaboration, recognising that there are no additional funds in the local system.

"Warrington Together and One Halton Integrated Care Partnerships will see health and social services working closer to provide more integrated care for the people of Warrington and Halton.

"By working together, we will see pathway integration and efficiency through the local health economy, which will be digitally enabled through the use of care records, risk stratification and patients accessing personal health records."