Troubled trust offered £30m lifeline

24 Feb 05
An NHS trust in Yorkshire will be given £30m to ease its financial problems before it implements a five-year recovery plan, it was revealed this week.

25 February 2005

An NHS trust in Yorkshire will be given £30m to ease its financial problems before it implements a five-year recovery plan, it was revealed this week.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which has hospitals in Pontefract, Wakefield and Dewsbury, was reportedly projecting debts of up to £50m by the end of this financial year and was the first trust to be placed on 'special measures' by the Healthcare Commission.

The inspectorate introduced the measures in December after it uncovered systematic management failings at the trust over a number of years.

Although its investigation initially focused on gastroenterology and related surgical disciplines, the recovery measures agreed between the trust, the Commission, the Department of Health and West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority are much wider in scope.

They include a five-year service and financial recovery plan to be put in place by March, the pooling of waiting lists across the trust's three hospitals, and the referral of clinicians with unexplained poor results to the National Clinical Assessment Authority.

Anna Walker, the Commission's chief executive, said: 'We've got to get this troubled trust back on track. Patients in mid-Yorkshire deserve better than they have received in recent years.'

Although the department may offer Mid Yorkshire further help, other financially troubled trusts cannot expect to be bailed out in this way. It is understood the DoH considered the trust a unique case and expected it to deliver a 'realistic' recovery plan.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority said sound finances were needed to support the trust's recovery.

'In the unique circumstances of this trust, the support announced by the DoH is an essential part of the overall package. The trust will now submit a financial recovery plan which secures the quality of its services and clearly sets out a path to meet the legal requirements to balance its books.'

However, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the decision to help was politically motivated: 'There are several Labour MPs in mid-Yorkshire, and lo and behold ministers are prepared to… bail the trust out.'

PFfeb2005

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