Medway hospital’s deficit has trebled in a year and its management has warned of a risk to patient care as it tries to deal with funding shortfall.

The admission comes amid concern over a £1 million fee paid to financial consultants over a year, including £335,917 in eight months to the company’s partner Timothy Bolot, who is currently the hospital trust’s interim finance director.

Mr Bolot and his team from Bolt Partners started working for the trust in June last year.

According to the hospital’s annual accounts, its deficit has trebled from £10,159,000 in 2013-14 to £30,535,000 in 2014-15.The trust is projecting a further deficit for 2015-16.

The report says, the trust was in discussion with lenders to extend its loan facilities, necessary to provide the trust with a sufficient working capital.

It went on to disclose: “There is a risk in attempting to close the deficit, the trust increases risks to the quality of patient care.”

Teresa Murray, Medway Labour’s health spokeswoman said: “This is very worrying especially as the trust have issued a statement saying how much they value Mr Bolot’s work.

The public needs to know why the trust believe the money spent is good value.

Consultants are commonly engaged with targets to achieve and we don’t know what the trust’s expectations were or indeed how his performance is being monitored. The front line staff have to work to targets and so should Mr Bolot.”

It is not the first time Mr Bolot has had a £1 million payout from a hospital whose finances he has been asked to turn around.

In 2012 The Daily Telegraph revealed that South London Healthcare paid £3,000 a day over a year for his advice – while cutting overtime payments and the wages of front line staff.

The South London trust hired the accountant and a qualified barrister, as interim finance director in April 2010. Between then and March 2011, a total of £902,082 was paid to his firm.

It was reported the trust was losing £1 million per week and became the first in England to be put under the control of Whitehall administrators.

Last week a spokeswoman for the trust defended the payment to Mr Bolot and said all packages were benchmarked against other NHS trusts.

She said: “As well as fulfilling the role of full-time interim director of finance, Mr Bolot also provides advice and support in respect of corporate structure, workforce reviews, and restructuring projects.”