Bradford trust at loggerheads with regulator

16 Dec 04
Bradford's foundation trust was considering a legal challenge against the removal of its chair this week as relations with its regulator reached crisis point.

17 December 2004

Bradford's foundation trust was considering a legal challenge against the removal of its chair this week as relations with its regulator reached crisis point.

The two sides were at loggerheads following weeks of sparring over the trust's financial position. In October, the regulator, Monitor, used its powers of intervention for the first time against the Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust after a potential overspend of £4m was uncovered.

On November 30, Monitor and the trust met to discuss a recovery plan drawn up by consultants.

Although the trust described the meeting as 'constructive', Monitor decided this week that the plan did not go far enough and the trust was failing to comply with its terms of authorisation. It said the trust was forecasting a deficit of £11.3m, compared with a projected surplus of £2.4m when it was awarded foundation status in April. The trust said it had saved £500,000 since October.

Monitor removed the chair, John Ryan, on December 14. 'The trust's recovery plan does not provide a credible or adequate response to the current financial difficulties; it lacks strategic vision and coherence and includes some opportunistic proposals that do not attempt to address the underlying causes of the cost overruns,' it said.

The trust's board met the same evening and passed a vote of confidence in Ryan. It also invited Monitor chair Bill Moyes to the city to explain the reasons for his actions. Local MPs and senior medical staff also backed Ryan.

A well-placed source at the trust said it was considering a legal challenge in the form of a judicial review of the decision to remove Ryan.

However, the board's position could be undermined by Monitor's appointment of Peter Garland as the trust's executive chair in Ryan's place. Monitor said it would be up to Garland, an experienced NHS manager, to decide whether further managerial changes were needed. This raised the prospect of the managers being removed before a legal challenge could be mounted.

Moyes said: 'Monitor's prime objective is to ensure that the trust returns to a financially viable and sustainable position, and does so in a way that ensures it continues to provide quality clinical care and meet national health care standards.'

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