Mortuary expanded for Covid crisis as cost to Doncaster and Bassetlaw hospitals is revealed

Papers presented to the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust this week outlined some of the costs the coronavirus crisis has meant for the hospitals.

A report by the trust’s director of finance Jon Sargent, revealed a £1.2m spending plan for buildings and equipment, with cash expected to be used this month, April.

Items incuded making £242,327 available for making the mortuary bigger. The virus has claimed 74 lives in the trust’s hospitals, Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop, and the Mexborough Montagu, to date.

It also made available £838,249 for ‘equipment’ and £117,688 for other capital works including segregation measures.

He said: “It is expected this will be incurred in April ‘20 as any capital works should have been completed ahead of the peak in cases.”

It had already spent £681,000 on Covid related building work and equipment in March, making sure the facilities at the hospital were suitable.

His financial report also included details of revenue costs, basically day to day running costs, relating to Covid, put at £457,000.

It estimated the cost of suspending annual leave, with holiday time being carried forward, was worth £637k, and lost non-NHS income due to car parking and private patients was valued at £99,000.

He added: “Within the position it is assumed that all of these cost pressures will be funded centrally or that the control total will be adjusted for them.”

The £457,000 running costs included some £35,000 in special mattresses need for intensive care units, nearly £20,000 for testing kits, and £3,984 for silicone keyboard covers for clinical areas.

The biggest figure was £199,544 for ‘consumables’ – clinical items like needles that have to be thrown away after they have been used

And £3,897 was listed for staff who need to be put up in hotels.

Based on current spending, he also estimated the cost of protective equipment until the end of July would be more than £460,000, and temporary staffing costs due to Covid over that period would be over £700,000.

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