Comment / Exciting journey ahead

As you receive this issue, we will be opening the doors for our 2014 annual conference. This event, and the annual general meeting held during it, gives us an important opportunity to meet as a membership. The challenges facing the NHS – service-wise and financially – mean sharing problems and solutions has never been more important.

Once again, we have more than 700 delegates crowding into the London Hilton Metropole. It can be a bit of a squash sometimes – believe me, we have agonised over whether we should move the event. But while we will keep the venue under review, it is one of the biggest hotels in Europe and we know it is popular with delegates.

This year, our outgoing president Andy Hardy has travelled the length and breadth of the UK (including all four nations) challenging us to ‘Lead by numbers’. I’ve known Andy for a long time and he is a true believer in the HFMA. To be able to find the time and energy to be our president while chief executive of a major acute trust is tribute to his commitment and organisational skills. It has been our pleasure to have been led by him throughout the year.

This is among the toughest years we have seen for NHS finance and Andy’s message has been clear – we must all be leaders at every level. Behind closed doors Andy has also been a powerful advocate for the function, and his work on the Financial Leadership Council has been instrumental in developing the future-focused finance initiative.

More recently you may have seen his sure-footed performance at the Public Accounts Committee in November (see page 4). So, it’s a big thank you from me, on your behalf, to Andy as he joins the ranks of former HFMA leaders who continue to serve us in different ways.

I am pleased to be working with Sue Lorimer as president next year. Sue is business director (North) at the NHS Trust Development Authority. She has an exciting theme and we will support it with some free development for members, much of it to be delivered locally.

Hailing from the North West Branch, Sue has had a number of finance director jobs in the region. Someone commented the other day that North West presidents are a bit like London buses – we had none for a couple of decades and now two in three years!

On a serious note, it is fantastic as we are harnessing the power of one of our biggest branches. This is matched by the number of award entries from that region and the number of committee chairs. I’d like to encourage other regions to step forward onto the national stage as we take the association forward.

As we move forward don’t hesitate to feed in what you have to say, be it about how the HFMA can improve or how we can represent you better. We have an exciting year ahead and I hope we continue to provide you with the very best support.