03.03.15
Dissolving Mid Staffs cost more than expected, admits Monitor
The cost of securing safe and sustainable services at Mid Staffordshire were higher, and took longer to implement, than originally planned, Monitor has admitted.
The regulator said the work of trust special administrators (TSAs) over 18 months cost Monitor almost £19.5m, significantly more than the originally budgeted £15.25m.
On top of this, the timescale of the work was extended twice. First to ensure that local NHS bodies agreed to all the recommendations made in the TSAs’ report, and second to agree funding needed to implement the solution.
The £19.5m cost covered the work find and implement a solution to the problems at Mid Staffs (£17.35m), plus the full cost of having the TSAs running the hospitals at the same time (£2.15m).
During the course of special administration, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust paid EY, the team supporting the TSAs, for additional professional services work costing £3.35m. This work was needed because the trust did not have the specialist staff required.
Dr David Bennett, chief executive at Monitor, said: “Mid Staffs was failing its patients and relying on tens of millions of pounds of emergency funding from central government each year. If nothing had been done the trust would have been £100m in debt by 2018.
“Our priority was securing safe and sustainable services for the people of Staffordshire, and while special administration took longer than expected it nevertheless led to substantial investment in local health services.”
The regulator brought forward the publication of the figures in response to a pending parliamentary question. Monitor plans to publish a detailed breakdown of the costs, alongside a report setting out some of the lessons learned, “in due course”.
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