Teams of financial and management specialists are to be sent into NHS organisations experiencing financial difficulties to help provide more effective services for patients.
NHS chief executive Sir Nigel Crisp announced that the ‘turnaround teams’ will be sent to work with strategic health authorities (SHAs), NHS hospital trusts, primary care trusts (PCTs) facing the greatest challenges for this year.
Crisp said: “The majority of NHS organisations are successfully managing finances alongside delivering efficiency savings and benefits, such as reduced length of stay for patients, better daycase rates and more efficient conversion rates in Accident and Emergency.
“However, it is clear that, half way through the financial year, a minority of NHS organisations are failing to manage within the resources available, despite receiving significant increases in funding.”
The teams of financial and management experts will help the NHS “identify opportunities to deliver services with greater cost-effectiveness”.
Six-month forecast figures, published by the Department of Health, show that most parts of the NHS are living within their budget.
Spending in the NHS increased this year by almost £7bn from £69.7bn to £76.4bn.
