A hospital is making-good progress in its battle to clear a huge overspend.

The Royal West Sussex NHS Trust, which runs St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, ended last year more than £13 million in the red but hopes to break even sooner than expected.

The trust has spent more than £400,000 for a specialist turnaround team of financial troubleshooters.

They devised a scheme aimed at saving £8 million over the next few years but that included 200 job cuts.

Consultants found ways to make it work more efficiently which included making full use of its theatres and ensuring patients do not stay in hospital any longer than necessary.

The total amount the trust owes is more than £35 million when debts from previous years are taken into account. Its annual budget is £34 million.

Trust chief executive Andrew Liles is pleased with progress since the turnaround project began three months ago.

He said "Our financial turnaround is £850,000 ahead of where we expected to be and we have achieved this while maintaining consistently high standards of patient care.

"We have tackled the financial issues head-on and are looking to break even earlier than planned.

"It is an excellent start and reflects the hard work everyone has put in.

"We must keep the pressure on and continue making the changes needed to become more efficient at providing high quality patient care and to balance our books.

"Delivering our turnaround plan is the most important action we must achieve this year after caring for our patients."

The trust was criticised in an Audit Commission report this week which claimed management failure was partly to blame for the overspend.