Comment / The X factor

Sue Jacques turns the spotlight on the NHS finance function and looks for individuals who are making a difference

Recently I had the pleasure of delivering an address at a retirement party for Laura Robson, nursing director at County Durham and Darlington, the foundation trust where I work. The room was filled with her family and both current and former colleagues.

Laura was radiant and everyone enjoyed the formal and informal parts of the evening, keen to ensure it was a night Laura will never forget. I admit that I felt extremely proud and privileged to be working with some of the most dedicated people in the NHS, who make a difference every day to the patients we serve.

‘Making a difference’ is my presidential theme for the year and my finance team have been reflecting on how they do just this and the value they add to our clinical services. The immediate focus for this is a ‘market stall’ event in February, where each of our corporate services will pitch what they have to offer to our clinical teams. The aim is to ensure that our corporate services provide the optimum level of support to the front line.

From what I’ve seen, they are preparing a great pitch. For a start, a proactive treasury management policy should see the trust earning more than £300,000 in extra interest this year than if we left our funds in the Government Banking Service current account. 

Then there is the finance department restructuring. Independent benchmarking has confirmed that the accounts receivable and creditor functions are now more efficient than those in the private sector.

Our ability to deliver these impressive outcomes is thanks to a number of factors. Perhaps the most important of these – and something Laura paid tribute to in her speech – is the strength of teamwork.

Let me offer you an example. In the height of the snowy weather last year, one of the more junior members of the finance team booked into a hotel at his own expense rather than risk not being able to get into work the next day from the remote location in which he lives. Rob is just one of a number of special individuals in my team, but in this, my first column as HFMA president, I’d like to pay a special tribute to him for this act.

We all work in teams. And in this, the busiest part of the financial calendar, as we work to deliver the requisite financial results in the last quarter of 2011/12, while also planning for 2012/13, we need to support each other.

Next year will present greater challenges than we have seen for some time, particularly as the restructuring of the NHS starts to work through. Strong financial discipline has been our hallmark in recent years. Our challenge is to continue this while improving the quality of healthcare for our patients.

The protection given to the health budget (along with greater links between funding and quality – who would have predicted a 67% increase in CQUIN funds available to providers?) – gives us a real opportunity to make this happen.