Trusts in financial problems
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The following table is the list published in Accountancy Age on 20 January 2006 showing a list obtained under the Freedom of Information Act of the 81 trusts investigated by KPMG's turnaround teams in December 2005. This list has been resorted into alphabetical order. The hyperlinks are to the pages on this website for the relevant strategic health authorities. It is incredible that financial problems on this scale should be the fault of the local management. And the list understates the problem as other trusts not on the list have made hasty cuts in service without proper consultation, including closures of local hospitals for which there is a recognised need. Such financial problems can only be the result of incompetent budgeting, failing to match resources to commitments both for existing services and for policy commitments, at ministerial level. * Eighteen trusts were allocated intervention teams on 25 January 2006. There appears to be negative correlation between the nine primary care trusts and the nine acute trusts. For example all four Sheffield PCTs have been allocated intervention teams, but the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is not on the list at all, but may still be reduced to deficit if the four PCTs' deficits are eliminated. Splitting the NHS into arms' length independent institutions (some like foundation trusts with favourable financial terms) adds to financial problems and may lead to some service cuts that, from the viewpoint of the patients and the NHS as a whole, are unnecessary or counter-productive. . |