NHS foundation trusts hire more staff to improve patient care
30 May 2014 10:41 AM
A new report from
Monitor shows NHS foundation trusts are acting to tackle the failures of care
highlighted by the Francis report and Keogh
review.
The report confirmed that NHS
foundation trusts hired an additional 24,000 members of staff last year, 3
times what was planned, in order to upgrade the quality of services to
patients.
The majority of new staff were
nurses, healthcare assistants and others supporting frontline
services.
Overall, the 147 NHS foundation
trusts (which make-up two-thirds of all NHS trusts) met national performance
standards for the majority of operational targets tracked by Monitor over the
course of 2013/14, and finished the year in financial surplus. However, the
surplus was one-third the size of the previous year, and in a sign of the
increased pressures upon services, more trusts failed to meet waiting times
targets in the final quarter (1 January 2014 to 31 March
2014).
Monitor’s board report on the performance of the NHS
foundation trust sector in 2013/14 found:
- the NHS foundation trust sector
made a surplus of £133 million (unaudited) compared to £491million
in 2012/13
- 40 trusts ended the year in
deficit, which is more than planned (16), and almost double the number last
year (21)
- the combined deficit of the 40
(£307m) was higher than expected (£190m), although 22 organisations
already subject to regulatory action or investigation by Monitor account for
70% of the overall deficit
- staff numbers increased by
24,123, which was 15,889 more than planned and a 4.1% increase on the previous
year
- in the last quarter, 26 trusts
breached the target of seeing 85% of cancer patients referred by a GP within 62
days, compared to 16 in the same period last year. NHS foundation trusts
attributed the failure to an increase in referrals following national awareness
campaigns
- in the last quarter, the sector
as a whole breached the target to treat 90% of admitted patients within 18
weeks of referral
- in the last quarter, the sector
as a whole breached the A&E waiting time target, but the 34 trusts which
failed to meet the standard was an improvement on the 47 trusts a year
ago
- during the year 27 trusts (19%
of the sector) were subject to enforcement action because of governance or
financial concerns
Jason Dorsett, Finance and
Reporting Director at Monitor, said:
The majority of patients
attending foundation trusts are receiving quality services in very difficult
financial circumstances.
Times are tough and hard
decisions will have to be made to ensure patients continue to get the services
they need at an affordable cost to the taxpayer.
However, many trusts are taking
positive steps such as increasing frontline staff to tackle the challenges they
are facing.
Download a copy of the
report:
Performance of the foundation trust sector - Year ended 31
March 2014
Listen to our
podcast:
Jason Dorsett, Monitor’s
director of financial reporting and risk,explains some of the
report’s key points.