12.08.15
Trust told to improve finances after ‘breaching its licence’
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (CHSFT) has been told to drastically improve its finances after an investigation by Monitor found it had breached its licence to provide NHS-funded health services.
The trust has been told to draw up and deliver a financial recovery plan to reduce its £17.8m forecast deficit, as well as longer term strategic plan to allow it to provide services on a sustainable basis.
Monitor has also added a further condition to CHSFT’s licence which requires an improvement by the trust’s board on dealing with these issues. This will enable the health regulator to take further regulatory action in future if necessary.
Paul Chandler, regional director at Monitor, said: “This trust provides crucial healthcare services to the population of Sunderland, as well as some more specialist services to a wider patient population. It is vital that the trust resolves its financial problems so that it can continue to provide those services on a sustainable basis.
“We expect the trust to develop a credible financial recovery plan and then make sure that plan is delivered.”
CHSFT, which has around 894 acute beds and employs nearly 5,000 people, ended the 2014-15 financial year with a deficit of £7.9m, after incurring significant additional costs as a result of investing £2.1m in more nursing posts in response to the Francis Review.
However, despite identifying savings of £13m for the 2015-16 financial year, CHSFT is forecasting a financial deficit of £17.8m.
Ken Bremner, chief executive at CHSFT, said: “The Care Quality Commission rated the quality of our services as ‘Good’ earlier this year and that would not have been achieved without the commitment and dedication of our staff.
“We do need however for our finances to once again return to ‘good’ as soon as possible.
“The next months and years will be challenging as the demands and greater expectations of a growing elderly population continue to impact on the delivery of healthcare, alongside the inevitable pressures and costs of advances in medicine, technology and drugs.”
It was noted that the trust’s focus initially is on achieving short-term efficiency savings but it will develop a transformation plan for the next 2-5 years. At this early stage CHSFT added that it has not identified any job losses and the trust hopes this will not be required, however, if it is necessary to reduce staff numbers “we would hope to be able to manage that through natural turnover, which has been 9-11 % in recent years”.
Monitor will continue to scrutinise CHSFT’s performance and may take further regulatory action if needed.
(Image: c. Ganesh Rao)