Briefing / Responding to the Francis report

The Healthcare Financial Management Association has produced this response to the Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust public inquiry (the Francis report) of February 2013, which detailed the causes of the failures at the trust that led to unacceptably low levels of care and the appalling suffering of many patients.

The report describes the actions of staff from across the trust and the wider NHS but finds that a focus on finance before patient care was one of the causes. Our response focuses on changing the culture of the NHS finance profession, which came under scrutiny during the course of the inquiry. It introduces a series of principles and actions and should be read in conjunction with the HFMA’s statement The role of the NHS chief finance officer.