After a torrid 12 months health bosses at the Royal United Hospital, Bath have promised staff and patients there is plenty to be optimistic about.

Describing 2002/03 as 'quite a difficult year', chairman Mike Roy insisted the hospital trust was undergoing a period of change and said people should feel good about the future.

The one star-rated hospital was ranked among the worst 39 acute hospital trusts out of 173 in the country in July.

The trust ran into debts of nearly £25m in 2002/03 alone and now has run up a total deficit of nearly £35m.

Catherine Phillips, deputy finance director, said: "We have accumulated a deficit of nearly £35m and most of that has been accumulated in 2002 to 2003."

But she said the trust was hoping to reverse the downward trend and break even next year, achieving financial balance by March 31.

The trust has spent years without a complete top staff team.

In 2003 three different people held the post of chief executive within the space of a year, until Mark Davies joined as permanent chief executive in November.

Now, with the appointment of John Williams as director of finance, Brigit Musselwhite as director of planning and strategic development and Lynn Vaughan as director of human resources, the trust believes it has a complete team for the first time in years.

As well as lifting the hospital out of debt, the trust made clear in its annual report that it aims to continue reducing patient waiting times.

Over the past year the trust hit the government target for treating 90 per cent of patients attending the emergency department within four hours.

It now plans to reduce waiting times to a maximum of 18 weeks from GP referral to treatment.

It also aims to reduce infection rates, including MRSA, by five per cent over the next year and deal more efficiently with complaints.

The hospital received 470 formal complaints during the year but only managed to respond to half of them within the target of 20 working days.

RUH spokesman Jane Farmer said: "We are aware that work needs to be done to improve that figure."

But she said reasons for the delay included the complaints department investigating allegations too thoroughly.

Chief executive Mr Davies, who lives in Sutton Benger near Chippenham, said: "One of our key tasks was to get the waiting lists down. The second is to put the finances right and get us on a stable financial footing.

"We are very close to breaking even this year and the trust has never done that in the last 12 years."

Describing the past year as "a year of recovery" Mr Davies said he had drawn-up a five-year plan for the hospital.