21 March 2003
An ambulance service that expanded a temporary staffing pilot into a £60m agency in a rush to meet Whitehall deadlines was left with a £10m deficit, the district auditor reported this week.
A special interest report revealed that the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service NHS Trust (Wymas) expanded its staffing agency, NHS Professionals, so rapidly that its internal financial controls broke down.
The district auditor said the service ignored concerns that it was expanding the agency too quickly and was operating outside its legal powers. 'The rapid expansion has been driven by the need to meet nationally determined NHS policy deadlines, which at times has overridden the need to ensure proper internal control,' the report stated.
Wymas launched its temporary nursing initiative in October 1999 in partnership with a local NHS trust. By 2002, it had rolled out its service to cover 66% of all national NHS Professionals' activity and was taking 13,000 calls a week.
Yet, despite this apparent success, it failed to conduct any business planning until 2002 or to calculate the full costs of rolling out the service.
By the summer of last year its operating costs were exceeding the commission it was charging customer trusts and it had a projected shortfall of £10m.
It was borrowing around £18m to keep afloat, while fees owed to it had risen to £14m. Expenditure for 2002/03 is expected to be £135m, while turnover in June 2002 was only £60m.
Performance was also poor with backlogs, system breakdowns and a high level of customer dissatisfaction.
The DoH has since covered Wymas's £10m deficit, but the district auditor Terry Carter warned that 'serious cash flow difficulties remain'. The amount it owed has been reduced to £11m and the trust is seeking more money from the DoH to cover these costs.
In a statement, the service said it had made 'significant progress in many areas' and confirmed that that NHS Professionals will be hived off as a special health authority.
'This move allows Wymas to focus on its core activity delivering a first-class ambulance service to the people of Yorkshire,' said Andrew Cratchley, managing director of NHS Professionals.
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