Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust will still be awarded around £5million in national funding, despite missing its financial targets.

NHS Improvement had promised trusts across the country a share of the £1.8bn Sustainability and Transformation Fund (STF) if budget plans were met by the end of the financial year.

However, because so many trusts across the country have ultimately failed to do so, NHS Improvement has decided to change the way funds are allocated.

OUH had initially been promised £20million through the STF if its 2017/18 financial plan was met, however, under the new formula the trust, which runs all of Oxfordshire's acute health services, will now receive just £5million.

OUH chief finance officer Jason Dorsett told members of the board yesterday: “Missing our plan for the year caused us not to be eligible for some £20million national Sustainability and Transformation Funding.

“It appears, with the national data, that quite a large number of trusts have been in that position.

“However, NHS Improvement have decided rather than hand it to a smaller number of trusts or, I suppose, hand it back to the Treasury, they have redistributed it through a different formula to include trusts that had missed their plans for the year.

"So having been told we would get none of that money we were then told in April that we will get £5million."

The STF was created to help reform and improve NHS services.