Set back for Foundation Hospitals
The Government’s Foundation Hospital scheme has received a set back this morning with the news that four of the 20 Foundation Hospitals have lost their three star rating.
Eleven of the 32 hospitals that had been hoping to become Foundation Hospitals in October also lost their three star rating, meaning that their plans must be put on hold.
Under Government rules a hospital has to be assessed as “three-star” before it can apply to become a Foundation Hospital and assume greater control over its own affairs.
There is no statuary requirement that Foundation Hospitals, once their status is granted, retain a three-star rating, but the hospitals will be required to explain why their ratings have slipped and present a plan on how to regain their status.
The four Foundation Hospitals to lose their three-star status are Addenbrooke’s hospital, Papworth heart hospital in Cambridge, Peterborough hospital and Moorfields Eye hospital in London.
Worryingly, considering that greater financial freedom is a key benefit of foundation status, the first three all underachieved on the key target of financial management.
To obtain three-star status the trusts have to meet all nine of the Government’s key targets, as assessed by the Healthcare Commission.
Overall, hospital performance improved with 43 per cent of acute and specialist hospital trusts achieving three-star rating.
Three-quarters of primary care trusts (PCT) also now have two or three stars, an increase of nine per cent on last year. However, there are clear regional disparities with 86 per cent of PCTs in the north being rewarded two or three stars, as opposed to 39 per cent in London.
The Healthcare Commission though expressed particular concern about the performance of mental health trusts, with more than a third having one star or less.
Sir Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Healthcare Commission, said: “The information which the NHS collects about the care of people who use mental health services is simply not good enough. It must be improved to ensure the better care of patients.
“The more detailed information which makes up each overall rating can help those responsible for parts of the service to review the reasons behind particularly good or poor performance.
Acknowledging that the rating system is not perfect, he said: “While we will continue with the current system of rating performance for another year. The Healthcare Commission is developing a new approach to the assessment of NHS bodies, which will allow a broader, richer picture of performance to be presented each year. It will be introduced for the year 2005-2006.”
