Poole hospital warned over its financial woes (From Bournemouth Echo)

Poole hospital warned over its financial woes

8:46am Friday 30th July 2010

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A NATIONAL regulator has warned Poole Hospital that it will step in unless the trust can sort out its troubled finances.

Monitor says the hospital is in “significant” breach of the terms under which it was allowed to become a foundation trust in November 2007.

The finding is based on concerns about Poole’s finances and the way they were managed last year, when the trust had a deficit of £4.5 million instead of a planned £2.1 million surplus.

Monitor has the power to remove directors and the chief executive, but for the time being it will be keeping a close watch on Poole’s progress.

New chief executive Chris Bown is leading the drive to save £10 million in the current financial year.

An interim finance and recovery director has stepped in until new finance director Paul Turner takes up his post in September.

Mr Bown said: “We need to submit a forecast in October this year of where we’re going to be by the end of 2011-12. We want to recover our financial position as quickly as we can and there are key milestones Monitor is expecting us to deliver.

“A £4.5 million deficit is not a great start, and with increasing costs of healthcare, we’re having to find savings every year to ensure we keep pace with that.”

He admitted that one of the contributing causes of last year’s deficit was the focus on delivering the Dorset target of 13 weeks from GP referral to hospital treatment. The national target is 18 weeks.

Mr Bown said that patient safety remained the trust’s top priority. “The cornerstone of the plan is about improving clinical quality. The by-product is saving money,” he insisted.

Savings measures include cutting the use of agency staff, increasing day case surgery, and putting the planned new maternity hospital on hold.

Mr Bown said the entire workforce was being reviewed to make sure people were being used in the most effective way. “We will try to keep redundancy to an absolute minimum,” he pledged.

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