Birmingham hospital merger to be first of many
pharmafile | December 15, 2006 | News story | |
Debt-ridden Good Hope hospital trust is set to merge with one of the country's best hospitals, the neighbouring Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS insiders say the move is likely to be the first of many, with the health service reforms making larger acute trusts the most viable option.
Good Hope hospital in Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham has had financial problems for a number of years, and is expected to end this fiscal year with a £15 million deficit.
In February, Good Hope's board voted unanimously to merge "with a larger and more stable organisation" and the management team from Heart of England has been working with the trust to stabilise its finances and prepare for being merged into the existing foundation trust.
The merger is subject to a public consultation and is expected to take place on 1 April 2007.
Significantly, Good Hope's £17.5m of historic debt is effectively being written off by the Department of Health, an escape route which may appeal to other indebted trusts.
London's Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust reported a deficit of £35.3 million in the last financial year, the single biggest deficit in the whole NHS.
Hammersmith merger talks
Derek Smith, chief executive of Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust has revealed that the hospital is "in conversation with a near neighbour", about a potential merger. Smith declined to name the trust, but it is understood to be the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust.
The Royal Brompton and Harefield ended last year in good financial health, but has been hit by the scrapping of plans to bring together all its facilities on one site.
Plans for the super-hospital in Paddington were scrapped earlier this year, after eight years in the planning and £14 million cost.
Addressing a Westminster Health Forum conference on leadership and management in the NHS said trusts needed to change in response to NHS reforms, but were now more exposed to financial risks.
"People are worried about the risks and sometimes they do come to fruition.
They [The Royal Brompton] have had a very recent project that didn't come off. They have been burned by it and everything they do has been affected by it."
The lack of good candidates to take on top jobs in the health service was another major problem, he said, citing a current example of two vacant chief executive posts in London trusts attracting a total of just three applicants.
Smith added that further mergers in Englands PCTs was "the way we will have to go" to produce fewer, larger commissioners of care.
