Dumfries and Galloway health board is struggling to cut £16 million from its budget.
Officials agreed earlier this year to make £31.2m worth of savings, with £15.2m already found.
However, since the financial plan for 2021/22 was approved in April, no in-roads have been made on the remaining £16m of cuts “and no plans have currently been identified to address this”.
Finance director Katy Kerr warned board members they face “significant challenges”.
In her financial performance update for Monday’s health board meeting, Ms Kerr said there were likely to be a number of pressures in the coming months such as the cost of medical locums, prescriptions and increasing use of the health service during winter.
Her assessment on the first quarter of the financial year has found there is “no improvement or indeed worsening of the overall position forecast as part of the approved financial plan and the in-year gap remains at £16 million”.
She adds this “clearly presents a difficult financial situation for the board to mitigate”.
The health board’s share of that comes in at £12.8m with £6.4m to come from ringfenced Covid-19 reserves. The rest is expected to come from the Scottish Government.
