HOLD THE FRONT
PAGE!
t
STOP
PRESS!
This is the endgame in a 7 year scandal, except it isn’t. The
report is from The Independent; Mid Staffs NHS Hospital Trust is to go into
administration. You would think it was a business – except it isn’t.
If a business goes bust it’s sold off, closed down. This
can’t be – the people of the area need the same treatment from the same Doctors
as before. The State has to pay, as before.
So, the bust ‘business’ is divided up between the surrounding
trusts, who then have to sort it out. With it goes all the debts – including
the massive Public Finance Initiative debts – they don’t go away – we pay.
And of course, in South London that meant the efficient Greenwich
Hospital lost it’s A and E and maternity to bail out the inefficient one.
Hmmmmmm.
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Jeremy Laurance
Health Editor
Thursday 28 February 2013
The scandal-hit Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is to
be put into administration, an NHS regulator has announced. The move comes two
months after officials from Monitor, the NHS Foundation Trust regulator,
concluded it was “clinically and financially unsustainable” after it was
revealed it would need a subsidy of £73 million over five years to keep it afloat.
Monitor said it was making the move “in order to safeguard
services for local patients.” The trust is likely to be broken up and some
services transferred elsewhere. Last month a public inquiry into failings at
the trust said patients had suffered
“appalling” care between 2005 and 2009 and that the trust had put “corporate self interest and cost control ahead of
quality and patient safety”.
The trust has been the subject of three inquiries in the last
four years and the damage to its reputation has made it difficult to recruit
medical staff and retain the confidence of patients. However, existing patient
services have been a clean bill of health by the Care Quality Commission.
Monitor is consulting the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and
other organisations about its proposed move but it is unlikely to be opposed.
Once it gets the go-ahead it will appoint special administrators to take over
the running of the Trust.
The special administrators will produce a plan for the reorganisation of the trust
which will go out to public consultation. Any changes proposed would require
the approval of the Secretary of State.
Mid Staffordshire is the first foundation trust – the
flagships of the NHs – to be put into administration, and only the second NHS
trust after the South London Healthcare Trust suffered the same fate last year,
following a report showing it was losing over £1 million a week.
David Bennett, Chief Executive of Monitor, said: “We are now
consulting on whether to appoint Trust Special Administrators with the
expertise to reorganise services in a way which is clinically robust and sustainable.
Their priority will be to make sure that patients can continue to access the
services that they need and they will work with the local community to do
this.”
“Taking into account the consultation process, it would be
several weeks before Trust Special Administrators were in place. In the
meantime the Trust Board will continue to ensure the current range of services
are delivered for patients and Trust Special Administrators would then continue
that responsibility.”
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Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)