THE county's hospitals boss has warned staff about a 'rapid deterioration' of finances after revealing the trust overspent by more than £24m.

In a statement sent to the 12,000 employees across Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) chief executive Bruno Holthof said there needed to be 'immediate and significant' improvement.

He said actions were in place to 'control both staff pay and non-pay expenditure'.

Dr Holthof has since confirmed the measures would not affect current employees but agency staff.

The action is being taken after the trust, which includes the John Radcliffe, the Churchill, the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, overspent on staff pay by £5.5m and £19m on non-pay such as medical supplies and stationery.

Despite the amount spent by the trust on agency staff falling by more than £9m in the last year, it is said to be in a 'worse financial performance' than in previous years.

In May, 2016, the Oxford Mail revealed that the trust spent a total of £41.3m to plug staffing gaps with bank and agency workers during the 2015/16.

Dr Holthof said: "The trust is strengthening cost controls in the organisation in order to redirect the spending on delivering patient care.

"These measures do not affect the staff employed by the trust but will affect agency staff.

"We will accelerate the recruitment of medical and nursing staff on our payroll in order to reduce our monthly expenditure on agency staff.

"For example we need more anaesthetists and operating theatre nurses to meet the growing demand for surgery and direct employment by the trust is cheaper and better than using agencies."

Currently OUH has 106 vacancies on pause for recruitment, the majority of which are administrative roles, and in 2016/17 the budget for both trust employees and agency workers was £537.7m but the total cost rose to £563.4m.

Non-pay expenditure should have been at £357.6m but increased to £375.2m throughout the year.

Dr Holthof added: "To achieve this, we are reviewing all vacant posts and focus our recruiting efforts on medical and nursing staff needed to meet the fast rising demand for urgent and elective treatments.

"Additionally, we are implementing tighter restrictions on ordering goods and services that are not directly needed to deliver care to our patients.

"All these measures are being introduced in ways that protect patient safety and the quality of our patient care is not being compromised.

"By implementing these controls, we are confident that our trust will be in good financial health so that we can continually improve and invest in our clinical services for the future."

In 2015/16 an extra £16.7m was spent on wages but £1.15m was saved on non-pay items.

The executive director of Healthwatch Oxfordshire Rosalind Pearce said: "This is a significant overspend, and we recognise that the management of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is going to have to make some difficult decisions in order to address it.

"However we will be seeking assurances from the trust that it will be able keep to its pledge that the measures taken will not have a negative impact on either the quality of care or the safety of patients."

A report into the trust's financial performance for 2016/2017 was published on Friday ahead of a board meeting on Wednesday.

In it a number of reasons are listed for the overspend including a savings shortfall of £13.6m, increased expenditure to reduce the number of delayed transfers of care patients and an increase of urgent patient referrals in the winter.

Despite OUH's promises to impose stricter controls on expenditure and have a more concentrated effort to employ more staff on its payroll, a health watchdog said it plans to keep a close eye on the new measures.

Chairwoman of Patient Voice Jacquie Pearce-Gervis said: "This is obviously very disappointing news.

"Patient Voice hopes that the control measures being put in place will not affect patient care in any way."

The next board meeting will take place on Wednesday at 10am in the training room at the Horton General Hospital, in Banbury.