Comment / HFMA 2012 Bennett calls for better plans

NHS foundation trusts must develop more rounded five-year plans that take account of all risks, Monitor chief executive David Bennett told the HFMA annual conference in London.

He said when looking across the foundation sector in the current financial year, the I&E margin expressed as a percentage of turnover was flat around zero for the majority of trusts. ‘It won’t take a lot of pressure to see a significant increase in the number of trusts in deficit. That’s a worry,’ he said.

‘People ask me how sure I can be that there will not be a rapid increase in the number of trusts in difficulty. Because of the way we operate, I am not sure.’ The regulator was looking at ways of measuring this, he added.

Foundations’ three-year plans suggested the sector was not heading for a crisis next year. ‘In fact they say next year will be better than this year but when I talk to people running trusts I am not hearing that next year will be better,’ he continued.

‘I am not convinced many of the foundation trusts – and I am sure the same is true for non-foundations – have developed five-year plans that properly reflect an understanding of what’s going on with the health economy, what’s changing in the legislative environment, commissioner intentions, what’s going on with competitors and new models of care that are emerging. There are going to be huge amounts of uncertainties in any five-year plan, and they will have to have all sorts of contingency measures, but I still think it needs to be done.’