Crisis-hit Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to get £4.5 million emergency hand-out

Nov 30 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

NHS West Midlands bosses have taken the unprecedented step of rescuing a crisis-hit Foundation hospital trust with a £4.5 million hand-out to save it from financial ruin.

The region’s health authority has agreed to give the cash to shamed Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where at least 400 patients died needlessly, amid predictions it could run out of cash in the new year, putting lives at risk. Extra investment is needed to ensure a programme of change is completed.

The measures, which focus on recruiting more medical staff and improving training and patient care, were set out in the wake of a damning Healthcare Commission report on Stafford Hospital.

Without the bail-out, Monitor, the overseeing body of Foundation trusts, would be forced to intervene with even an option of removing board members. Paul Taylor, interim finance director at NHS West Midlands, said: “Mid Staffordshire should be able to stand on its own but its financial position is poor, it has had difficulty recruiting staff, it is losing patients to Wolverhampton and North Staffordshire and has non-payment issues. If no additional resources are given, the trust could be £8 million overspent and run out of cash not long after Christmas.”

The Foundation trust is battling back after Healthcare Commission inspectors found that at least 400 patients died unnecessarily over three years. Reports said there were “appalling failings at every level” between 2005 and last year, with “serious misjudgments” over not investigating whether high mortality rates were linked to cuts in nursing levels.

Health chiefs are set to make the payment by March, dependent on conditions which include that the money will go to making the changes needed. There will be a review of the Trust’s financial viability in March.