News / FTs will retain freedoms and surpluses, Moyes says

Monitor executive chairman Bill Moyes (pictured above) rejected claims that the government might try to claw back foundation trusts’ surpluses and curtail their freedoms.

At the HFMA annual conference, the regulator said he was optimistic foundations would keep their freedoms. ‘I am not picking up any nervousness that hospitals will not manage in this environment. The way FTs are constructed, the environment in which they operate is something they will be glad of. Having financially strong hospitals is something politicians recognise as being of real benefit,’ he said.

’The Treasury hasn’t given me any reason to believe it has found a way to take surpluses off trust balance sheets. It realises by taking away that money it takes away the ability to invest in new services for patients at a time when demand is going to grow.’

FTs should spend their surpluses but he insisted primary care trusts must ensure they spend wisely.

Mr Moyes said quality was ‘the new black’ but the tight financial outlook could stall the initiative. He expected the health service would chip in £1bn to the government’s £5bn efficiency savings announced in the pre-Budget report, which also said overall public sector growth would be 1.3% in 2011/12, declining to 1.1% in 2013/14. ‘This is not the most encouraging environment in which to launch an initiative on quality,’ he added.

‘It will be tempting if you are a finance director to sacrifice quality – let waiting times go out, cut back on maintenance and postpone the replacement of equipment. I don’t think those options are open to us, particularly when the NHS Constitution has been passed into law. The evidence is that if you cut back on quality there is a real cost that comes back to bite you.’

This could take the form of increases in healthcare-acquired infections, increased bed days and revision surgery. There was evidence that improving financial performance went hand-in-hand with higher quality. ‘For a variety of reasons I don’t think we can sacrifice quality to meet financial constraints,’ he added.