Magazine / Healthcare Finance March 2024
![Healthcare Finance magazine March 2024 cover](/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_full_width_desktop/public/2024-03/Healthcare%20Finance%20magazine%20March%202024%20cover_0.png?itok=Xa6-2jph)
The March issue of Healthcare Finance puts a Welsh lens on the current pressures facing the NHS across the whole UK. Health boards started the year with significant planned deficits, requiring a major boost in funding mid-year from the Welsh government. But significant challenges remain in the years ahead, despite a generous settlement for 2024/25 relative to other areas of public spending. We talk to health board leaders about what is needed to deliver financial sustainability.
Elsewhere in the issue, we report on an HFMA roundtable, supported by AdviseInc, that explored the finance role in improving procurement. Key issues identified were the need for robust, reliable data and good analytics to understand what it means. But participants also called for a greater focus on the delivery of value over time rather than immediate costs. The magazine also examines the push for greater use of technology, and asks if NHS bodies are thinking enough about the impact of digital on the environment. And we look at a programme that aims to support finance managers in helping to address local health inequalities....plus all the usual news and analysis along with technical and careers updates.
Features
Health services across the UK face the same operational and financial pressures. How are finance leaders in Wales meeting the challenges?
Hywel Dda University Health Board is having to face up to taking difficult decisions to support sustainable improvements.
As a commissioned service and provider body, Velindre University NHS Trust feels pressures slightly differently to the health boards.
A recent HFMA roundtable, supported by AdviseInc, explored the finance role in improving procurement and the data needed to inform this.
A new programme aims to understand the finance role in tackling health inequalities and share ideas and good practice.
There is a presumption that digital services will help the NHS meet net zero targets. But NHS bodies must have an understanding of the actual impacts
News
Finance directors have issued a plea for greater realism in the expectations placed on the service along with greater flexibility to spend resources.
NHS costing in England will now enter a new phase with a focus on using the data rather than further developing the methodology.
The savings identified in the three-year financial plans submitted by Scottish health boards in 2023/24 will not be sufficient for them to break even.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s spring Budget held two big announcements for the NHS.
An HFMA/One NHS Finance study group visited Seattle recently to learn more about the Virginia Mason improvement methodology.
Developments in the world of healthcare in the past three months.
Comment
The HFMA is providing support for under-pressure finance leaders.
This is my first update since our annual conference in December. Once again, it was a tremendous event with a great range of speakers and opportunitie
Costing will in future be all about use of the data, but fundamental questions remain
Technical and careers
For most NHS bodies, it’s a relatively quiet year from a financial reporting perspective.
The National Finance Academy has rolled out the NHS Finance Insights placement scheme to all seven NHS regions in England.
Finance leaders in the NHS could be starting on an MBA in September if they sign for the HFMA executive route to gain an HFMA masters-level diploma.
Karl Simkins called time on an almost 39-year career in NHS finance at the end of January.
A round-up of recent appointments in NHS finance
Related content
The Institute’s annual costing conference provides the NHS with the latest developments and guidance in NHS costing.
This conference provided those responsible for financial reporting the opportunity to start to plan for the financial year-end.