THE Isle of Wight's healthcare NHS trust is predicting an overspend of £1.2m by the end of the financial year, the trust's board has been told.

The grim picture was outlined to the board by director of finance Richard Quinton, who said the overspend already stood at £720,000.

In the past month the picture had worsened by £70,000.

Mr Quinton said the situation had worsened from a year end forecast of £800,000 earlier this year, due to factors including the withdrawal of some extra funding hoped for from the primary care trust.

Trust chief executive Graham Elderfield, pictured, said he had written to the NHS regional office to put them in the picture on the deteriorating situation.

Board member David Langford, a non-executive director, said: "Effectively we will have done the work, for which at the end of the year we will have not had the money."

Mr Quinton said the major area of overspend was in acute and rehabilitation services, where the current overspend was estimated at £663,000.

Factors behind this included high ward occupancy, and the use of bank nurses and extra locums because of activity pressures and to cover maternity and sick leave in the hospital.

Mr Elderfield added: "With 16 weeks of the financial year to go we face a predicted deficit which has risen from £800,000 to £1.2m." anything about it."