Comment / Business as usual

The HFMA board met in January and concentrated on developing the association’s infrastructure in the wake of the appointment of Ian Turner as the association’s finance director. 

We have re-established the audit committee and it has become an audit and finance committee with a wider focus as the association continues to grow.  We are in the process of developing revisions to reserves and investments policies, as well as taking a closer look at how we can support our branches.  Ian has also been looking at options on the HFMA’s accommodation requirements.

In terms of our schedule its very much business as usual, with the normal HFMA calendar kicking off for 2009. Indeed, last month we held the first event of the year, our annual foundation trust lunch and this was well supported, as all our FT Finance events are. This year we are hoping to make more progress in providing the same support to mental health and primary care colleagues. 

For mental health we intend to develop a group to help steer the work of the association in this important area and at the FT lunch we ran an open session for colleagues in that area. We are planning on developing a series of events throughout the year as we monitor, for example, the move towards payment by results based on care clusters.

In primary care, we are taking steps this year to provide more opportunities for members.  We are continuing to support the joint finance reference group with the NHS Confederation’s PCT Network and this is making progress. 

On the conference side, the association is running a World Class Commissioning conference with the NHS Alliance on 17 March.  This one-day event will feature Mark Britnell and shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley. We follow that up with the first ever national primary care finance conference in Blackpool in July.  Essentially, it will be a

24-hour event focusing on current issues in primary care and providing the usual balance of education and networking.  Later the same week, we will host the FT Finance conference at the same venue for colleagues in the acute and mental health sectors.

In the next few months we will host several other programmes. The pre-accounts planning conferences will run in February,  followed by the next in our series of payment by results summits. Places are going fast for that programme, so please get your bookings in.  Finally, I am delighted that HM Revenue and Customs is helping us put on a tax conference in March.

So, it is a busy agenda for the HFMA as always and lots of opportunities for learning and development within that. I want to thank everyone personally who comes along to our events to support them as this is critical to our success at the HFMA. Don’t forget it’s your association and your ideas are very much welcome. Please e-mail me with your suggestions about this and how we can improve the services provided.