NHS trusts in European country have racked up a deficit of £1.6 billion within the initial six months of the fiscal year - the worst on record.
The official figures for Gregorian calendar month to Sep mark the half-way mark of the 2015-16 fiscal year however is already double the full for 2014-15.
Regulators delineated the performance because the 'worst for a generation' with the price of agency workers and rising demand for services aforesaid to be for the most part responsible.
Experts forecast the widespread cutbacks to services can cause longer waiting times and enhanced allotment of care.
Based on these figures, it's expected the NHS trusts can finish the year a staggering £2.2 billion within the red.
Richard Murray, director of policy at think-tank The King's Fund, said: 'Today's figures show the NHS is within the grip of associate new money meltdown.
'Deficits on this scale can not be attributed to direction or unskillfulness. Quite merely, it's not attainable for the overwhelming majority of NHS suppliers to keep up standards of care and balance their budgets.'
The latest statistics cowl 241 trusts answerable of running hospitals, ambulances and mental state services.
They account for roughly common fraction of the NHS's £116bn budget with the remaining cash spent in areas like drug prescribing and GPs.
Worryingly, some eighty per cent of trusts area unit currently area unit operational at a deficit.
Today's report aforesaid NHS trusts spent £1.86 billion on agency employees within the initial six months of the fiscal year, 'especially agency nurses and backup man doctors, utilized to satisfy unplanned activity, inefficient use of permanent employees and a deficiency within the permanent manpower owing to enlisting difficulties'.
'In addition, we tend to estimate that delayed discharges value suppliers £270 million within the year so far.'
All 3 automobile time interval targets were lost, though a hospital target to treat patients at intervals eighteen weeks of referral by their physician was hit.
Hospitals conjointly treated eighty two.1 per cent or thirty five,530 cancer patients referred by GPs at intervals sixty two days of referral, missing the eighty five per cent national target.
A key reason for this was delays in providing key diagnostic tests, the report aforementioned.
Mr Murray said: 'We ar currently halfway through a decade which can see the biggest sustained fall in NHS disbursal as a share of value since 1951.
'Services ar beneath vast pressure, with the newest information showing that the A&E target has not been met for a year and delayed discharges at record levels. whereas there's still scope to boost productivity, this needs direct investment to unharness savings and can take time to deliver results.
'If the Chancellor required a be-careful call previous next week's disbursal Review, this is it.'
Hospitals are below huge pressure to chop disbursal on big-ticket agency doctors and nurses however employees shortages ar creating it troublesome.
Figures for April to Gregorian calendar month showed NHS Foundation Trusts had a deficit of £445 million, whereas alternative NHS trusts all over the primary quarter of the year £485 million in deficit.
It comes as junior doctors prepare to travel on strike next month once ninety eight per cent voted in favour of business action amid a bitter dispute with Jeremy Hunt over planned new contracts.
Patients face 3 weeks of disruption whereas many thousands of operations and hospital appointments are going to be off as a results of 3 walkouts within the run up to Christmas.
Consultants, nurses and doctors WHO aren't protestant are going to be asked to hide for hanging colleagues. Hospitals ar being urged to raise recently retired consultants to figure, as they're usually authorised to practise for eight years once they retire.
But they're going to not be able to rent locums to hide hanging doctors, as this could be felonious below the 1973 Employment Agencies Act.
Anita Charlesworth, chief social scientist at the Health Foundation, aforesaid the figures showed a 'deepening monetary crisis'.
She added: 'Today's figures ensure the really dire state of NHS finances. They underline the requirement for realistic hospital budgets, enough trained workers, investment in hindrance to tackle rising demand, and sustained sensible support for hospitals to unlock potency savings whereas maintaining quality of take care of patients.'
Jim Mackey, chief govt designate of NHS Improvement, said: 'Today's figures bring extremely difficult reading - not least for those NHS organisations that square measure missing national standards and going into deficit for the terribly 1st time.'
A Department of Health interpreter aforesaid the govt was committed to the NHS and its values and is investment £10 billion to 'fund its own plan' for the longer term.
'The NHS should play its half in delivering efficiencies and we're supporting it with new measures to assist hospitals crack down on overpriced staffing agencies and cut payment on management consultants.
'We expect the impact of those to be mirrored later within the year and, at the side of different savings across the system, we tend to square measure assured we'll finish the year in monetary balance.'
