Comment / A year of growth

Chairmanship of HFMA offers a fantastic opportunity to help shape policy development at national level and also to develop the benefits of the association for branch members. My theme for the year has been ‘Moving forward together’. This theme had two key dimensions. The first was to continue the growth of the association with a focus on improving member benefits, involvement and membership numbers. But the theme also captured my intention for the association to support members as they strove to deliver high-quality patient care in a financially viable and sustainable way. We have to remember that the English NHS and its finance function had faced some criticism following an overall deficit in 2005/06.

A year on the financial position looks much healthier. There was an overall surplus in 2006/07 and the service is on course to increase this surplus this year. I believe that the HFMA – through the training, development and support it provides to members, the training it provides to non-executives and the work it does in influencing the policy agenda – has had a small part to play in this recovery.

I set myself four objectives for my year:
- to continue to develop the dialogue with key policymakers
- to develop the branches and member involvement
- to continue to develop a range of new services for members and organisations that are relevant and of the highest quality
- to continue the development of HFMA as a major player in the national and international healthcare industry.

All of these areas have seen progress. Highlights have been the meetings with senior policymakers in the NHS, the development of a branch and member involvement plan, the launch of new member-oriented products such as the e-learning modules and the new website (see page 25), and the successful running of our international exchange programme in Paris earlier in the year.

The personal highlights for me have been the opportunity to visit the association’s branches, particularly the national branches covering Wales and Northern Ireland, and to meet their members. Despite the continuing divergence in the structures and approaches taken by the different national health systems, I am struck by the similarity in challenges facing finance professionals across the UK. There remain huge lessons to be learnt from the different approaches being taken across the devolved nations and the association is well placed to take advantage of the community that exists within the whole UK healthcare finance profession.

A further highlight for me has been the opportunity to study and understand other countries’ healthcare systems. I have been fortunate to visit America, France and New Zealand during the year and have been able to compare and contrast with the English NHS. All told, it has been another successful year in the development of HFMA.