The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee expressed doubts on whether the government’s aim to transform all NHS trusts into foundation trusts would be possible by 2014 especially due to the financial difficulties faced by many hospital trusts.
According to the MPs, out of the 113 trusts left to achieve foundation status 70 are hospital trusts and four out of five of them are facing serious financial difficulties which would make it impossible for them to achieve foundation trust status. The committee report identifies a whole host of reasons including historic debts and bad management coupled with the drive to generate £20 Billion in efficiency savings across the NHS.
Twenty hospital trusts have already made it clear that would not be able to meet the financial requirements of being a foundation trust which means they would have to be closed down or merged. And the MPs say others could follow suit.
What is worse is many of these are situated in some of the most deprived communities in our country including some parts of the capital – which the MPs singled out for the major challenges facing London’s health services. This means that the most vulnerable in our society could see their access to healthcare a bit more difficult as they would have to travel further to receive treatment.
"These trusts will be forced into reconfigurations or even mergers,” Committee Chair Margaret Hodge MP said. “"This may deal with the financial challenges involved but could leave some deprived communities with unequal access to high quality healthcare when hospital departments are closed and services moved.” The MPs’ concerns were echoed by the respected health think tank the King’s Fund.
The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley acknowledged that there is a problem and blamed it squarely on the previous administration’s flawed use of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) along with “inadequate leadership” in NHS organisations.
Mr Lansley said: “The report by the committee confirms that Labour left some parts of the NHS with a dismal legacy of PFI bills, hidden bailouts, and in some cases inadequate leadership to face these challenges and those of the future. While there are plenty of top performing trust boards, we are determined to root out poor performance by shining a light into every area of the service.”