Indebted NHS trusts "in shocking state"
16 December 2011
The dire financial state of NHS hospitals has been re-iterated by MPs, who warn that the Government's plans to give them more autonomy will not succeed unless major changes are made, including merging trusts.
The Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) investigation into the pipeline of trusts yet to achieve the coveted foundation trust status (half of all hospital trusts) found that four out of the five face financial difficulties. Most have performance issues and governance problems. Twenty have said that they will never make foundation status, including ten in London. This week the King's Fund warned that London's hospitals were in urgent need of reform in order to survive financially, but also to tackle pockets of poor care in the capital and save lives.
The next few years are likely to see major changes to NHS hospitals through the merging of trusts, which will see some hospitals lose services. It is likely that this will be accompanied by local opposition as people protest to "save" their local hospital.
Chair of the PAC Margaret Hodge MP said that mergers could leave some deprived communities with "unequal access to high quality healthcare".
"London is in a particularly shocking state and nobody has got a grip on long-standing problems," she said. "We remain to be convinced that combining struggling hospitals into larger trusts – as with South London – will somehow produce viable organizations offering good quality, accessible healthcare."
It was announced yesterday that the business case for the merger of three London NHS trusts – Barts and the London, Newham university hospital and Whipps Cross university hospital – has been approved by the NHS London board.
The King's Fund report this week highlighted how political intervention had held back a plan to improve services in London, which had involved extensive consultation with clinicians.
The Government intends that the majority of the remaining 113 NHS trusts will become foundation trusts by April 2014.
Source: Health Insurance Magazine, December 2011