AFTER completing its financial year having accrued a mountain of debt, the books of Basildon & Thurrock Hospital have been wiped clean.

The hospital, formerly run as a separate Foundation Trust, became part of the new and controversial Mid and South Essex Trust this week, as reported on Thurrock Nub News.

All three hospitals in the new Trust, Basildon, Chelmsford and Southend, have had significant overspend but will now get a major financial boost after having their debt written off by the government.

The chief financial officer at New Trust has confirmed It will benefit from the government's announcement that it will write off billions of pounds of debt across the NHS.

In total more than £13.4billion will be written off by the government to support hospitals across the country which are struggling to deal with the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic.

Dawn Scrafield, chief finance officer for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said that this will include all hospitals in south Essex.

She said: "The new NHS debt regime will convert legacy debt for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust into Public Dividend Capital, which means we will not need to pay back historical debt incurred by Southend , Basildon and Mid Essex hospitals.

"The NHS debt regime requires interest charges to be paid on the loans that needed to be taken out, however this will convert to a dividend payment."

Accounts for the Basildon and Thurrock trust show it owed the Department of Health and Social Care £138 million at the end of the last recorded financial year, a figure that would have risen considerably when the 2019-20 figures are added in.

Following the announcement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "Today's £13.4 billion debt write off will wipe the slate clean and allow NHS hospitals to plan for the future and invest in vital services."

Pay scales with the local hospitals continue to be a debate-maker. Many of the top staff earn significant six figure salaries, with its CEO earning almost quarter of a million pounds annually.

Yet, again as detailed by Thurrock Nub News this week, click here, some front line workers are getting less than the recognised living wage.