About £5m more needed to pay energy bills to keep King's Mill Hospital running

The majority of rise is at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, the organisation in control of Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital, which needs £27m more compared with last year to keep its sites running.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King’s Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community Hospitals, is forecasting the remaining £5m rise for heating and electricity this year compared with 2021/22.

The Government is providing funding for both trusts to cover the rises and both organisations are developing ways of reducing energy usage.

The rises are being fuelled by the record high costs of wholesale gas, electricity and fuel, as well as soaring inflation which topped 10.1 per cent on Wednesday, August 17.

Hospital trusts face greater pressures on running costs compared with organisations like councils, due to busy sites like King’s Mill operating 24 hours a day.

NUH has received £28m for extra energy costs this year, provided via taxpayer support from NHS England and the Treasury.

Marcus Pratt, programme director for system finance at NHS Nottinghamshire, confirmed the support package is in place and revealed the cost of heating the county’s hospitals.

He said: “Like all households across the country, the NHS is also being impacted by rising energy prices.

“NUH has planned for, and continues to forecast, an increase in budget for annual energy costs of approximately £27m compared to costs experienced in 2021/22.

“For SFH, the equivalent value is about £5m.

“NHS England has provided additional targeted funding in 2022/23 to support these inflationary pressures and across the local healthcare system we continue to take measures to reduce our energy spend by working to be more sustainable.”

It comes as district and borough councils confirmed they are also budgeting for ‘significant’ energy rises in the coming months.

Some authorities have contingency pots totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds to cope with the rise, with Gedling Council revealing it is estimating annual fuel and energy surges of £45,000 and £110,000 respectively.