A health board is on track to meet its “worst case” planned overspend of £60 million this financial year.

That is based on spending during April, the first month of the current financial year, which was around £5m over its planned budget, described as an “adverse variance”.

Robert Holcombe, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s finance chief, said it is working towards a £48.9m projected deficit – that is the difference between the amount of money it receives and how much it actually spends.

He told the board’s May meeting it has planned on making £40m in savings this year and has a worst case scenario of a £60m deficit and a best case of £48.9m.