Hywel Dda Health Board is currently staring down an “unacceptable” forecast deficit of almost £80m and has warned that cash could run out by February next year.

A health board meeting held in Carmarthen on Thursday, 26 September were presented with a financial report by finance director Huw Thomas.

The Health Board approved a budget in March with a planned deficit of £64m, delivering £32.4m in savings.

That plan, which was rejected by Welsh Government as “unacceptable” required the health board to post a deficit of no more than £5.3m a month.

Despite that position being unacceptable, the health board meeting heard the deficit has slipped even behind that target.

“The Health Board is expected to improve on the planned deficit of £64m, but at this stage there are no assured plans in place which would deliver this,” a meeting report said.

The report added that there has been “significant effort in the last quarter to identify the £32.4m savings target”, with the current savings gap now standing at £4.3m.

“Whilst the savings delivery is positive, of the £28.1m identified to date, there remains a £15.6m recurrent delivery gap, and consequently, the underlying deficit is reported as £79.2m this month,” the report added.

The meeting heard that the health board “will require strategic cash assistance in line with its forecast deficit and working capital balances in order to make payments from the end of February 2025 onwards.”

“Discussions are ongoing with Welsh Government to secure this funding, pending the formalisation of our cash forecast requirements,” a meeting report said.

Board members agreed to “recognise that the Health Board’s opening budget deficit of £64m is not an acceptable position for the Board, or Welsh Government” and that “this position is not backed by cash support from Welsh Government at this stage, as it is in excess of the Target Control Total of £44.8m.”

Members also agreed to recognise that “whilst the underlying deficit has reduced from the opening plan value of £96.4m, due to the level of non-recurrent savings delivery in 2024/25, it remains higher than the forecast deficit at £79.2m.”