Health: Warning NHS faces mounting financial pressures

Patient waiting times could increase as a growing number of elite hospitals face financial difficulties, a report warned yesterday.

Regulator Monitor said NHS foundation trusts – said to be the best performing in the country – are showing increasing signs of strain.

Trusts have told the Monitor they are coming under “increasing pressure” to meet A&E waiting times and referral to treatment targets.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The report, based on the annual plans of trusts, found around one in three trusts are predicting a decline in their financial risk rating in the next year.

The hospitals which face the greatest troubles are small and medium-sized district general hospitals and trusts with large private finance initiatives (PFIs), Monitor said.

Just last month an NHS trust grappling with two huge PFI deals became the first in the country to be put under the control of a special administrator.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust was put on the “unsustainable providers regime” and an administrator has been tasked with putting it on a viable footing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Monitor’s chief operating officer, Stephen Hay, said: “In the short term, the sector’s balance sheet is in good shape overall and trusts have planned sufficient cost savings in the year ahead.

“However, Monitor’s review suggests that an increasing number of individual trusts will face financial difficulties by the end of this period, with different issues affecting different trusts.

“Our experience of reviewing these plans tells us there are indications that the sector’s finances will be weaker by the end of 2015.

“We expect an increasing number of trusts could be placed in significant breach for financial reasons.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Particular challenges come from the need to improve the quality of care while delivering considerable savings each year.

“Foundation trusts are planning to do this without planning to treat fewer patients or reduce the level and quality of care they provide.

“To achieve this, they will need to look at making significant changes in the way services are delivered to meet patients’ changing needs.”

All NHS trusts must make at least four per cent savings in the year to March but the annual plans reveal the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust faces the biggest task in Yorkshire as it aims to save £15m – around seven per cent of its budget.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bosses at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the best performing in the country, say they plan to explore the potential for the fee-paying services to private patients in some specialities as part of efforts to earn more income.

NHS Confederation deputy chief executive David Stout warned more radical action is going to be needed to ensure sustainability of NHS trusts in the future.

“NHS leaders are expressing some confidence in meeting the immediate financial challenge,” he said. “But pressures are continuing to grow across the NHS, with increasing numbers of organisations starting to experience significant financial pressures.

“NHS leaders know the real challenge is to tackle a flat budget while managing the increased costs of treating an ageing population, advanced technology and the growing rates of lifestyle diseases such as obesity.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“And they know that doing this will require more radical action. It will require further integration of services and expanding community-based care.

“This is necessary to avoid financial pressures harming patient care, and to ensure the NHS keeps up with the needs of local populations.

“To tackle these challenges successfully, NHS leaders need to get the public on board with some very difficult decisions. They need to persuade people that we need to change services to improve the quality of patient care and make the most of the resources we have.”

Related topics: