News / Finance directors worried about quality

01 June 2016 Seamus Ward

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John ApplebyAccording to the fund’s latest quarterly monitoring report, almost two-thirds of NHS finance directors and more than half of clinical commissioning group chief finance officers believe that quality of care deteriorated in 2015/16.

The survey results were backed by the fund’s analysis, which showed that performance had reduced in a number of areas, including elective waiting times and the four-hour A&E waiting target.

More than half of trust finance directors expect to end 2016/17 in deficit and the fund estimated that this could reach £1.4bn in the provider sector as a whole. Almost
a fifth of CCGs expected to overspend this year.

King’s Fund chief economist John Appleby (above) said: ‘2016/17 is a watershed year for the NHS in which it has been tasked with eradicating deficits and improving performance.

‘Despite significant additional funding and a huge effort to contain deficits, it is clear that this is going to be a Herculean challenge,’ he added.