Energy crisis: Leeds NHS trust expects £2m monthly price hike

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is expecting to pay an extra £2m a month for energy in early 2023.

The trust, which runs Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital, told the British Medical Journal this was a 110% hike on its electricity and gas bill in early 2022.

Meanwhile, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust is expecting its total 2022-23 bill to be 130% higher.

The government said it had provided an extra £1.5bn to cope with rising costs.

The BMJ approached a number of NHS trusts in England for details of their recent and predicted future energy bills.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs seven hospitals across five sites, said it was doing all it could to reduce its energy consumption.

"We have a range of plans in place to ensure we can continue to maintain our services and ensure we have robust supply procedures in place to manage any future changes in energy costs," a trust spokesperson said.

Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Sheffield Children's Hospital, reported a predicted 130% jump - which compares its expected total 2022-23 bill with its 2021-22 cost.

Speaking to the BMJ, chief finance officer John Williams said its energy costs are "likely to continue increasing by a considerable amount".

The trust said it had been able to curtail costs to some extent because it is locked into current prices with its supplier until the end of March.

"Ultimately this is still NHS resource that could otherwise have been used to support the delivery of patient care," Mr Williams added.

A government spokesperson said: "NHS England has provided local NHS organisations with an additional £1.5bn in 2022-23 to cope with inflation and other cost pressures, including rising energy prices.

"In 2021, NHS England published its estates delivery plan which sets out the measures organisations should take to reduce their energy emissions and maximise efficiency."