Finance and Pensions & Investments Blog

Financial surgery to cure trust woes

From the archive,

Radical plans to streamline services have been proposed for Airedale Hospital which is struggling with a £6 million deficit.

The new chief executive of the NHS trust which runs the Steeton-based hospital has drawn up a blueprint for the future in which he pledges to win Foundation Status by 2007.

At the core of Adam Cairns vision is to halt the financial plunge and make Airedale able to treat patients quicker, more effectively and more efficiently.

In a two-year financial recovery plan called Way Ahead, he aims to claw back £3 million from this current budget by April next year.

And then he wants to tackle a recurrent £3 million deficit which has accumulated during the past few years.

At present, the trust has just a one star NHS rating out of three because of its financial deficit.

Also central to the plan is a shake-up of both clinical and management procedures to "tackle the root cause of our inefficiency".

But before the new approach is adopted Mr Cairns wants to hear from the public and has launched a district wide consultation.

People will have until Friday, October 14, to have their say and he hopes to start the new regime by October 31.

He has promised to publish an implementation timetable after the feedback has been evaluated.

He said: "To improve the services and offer an even higher quality of service, we must now tackle the root cause of our inefficiency by changing the way we do things.

"We are putting in place an ambitious reform programme which includes a new organisational structure for delivery, new management and accountability framework, a new performance framework and an organisational development framework."

A cornerstone to the plan is the setting up of a one-stop-shop service for patients.

It aims to cut waiting times by on-the -spot testing and rapid diagnosis.

It would mean patients getting diagnosed the same day as their test and for treatment to start immediately where possible and appropriate.

Dr Richard Pope, the trust's medical director, said re-structuring the way patients were dealt with so that they were seen earlier by the various clinicians, would lead to quicker diagnosis.

It would mean less people having to be admitted as emergencies.

Earlier and faster treatment hopefully would also lead to less take-up of hospital beds.

"We are aiming to make the system more patient focused rather than service focused," he added.

Mr Cairns, who has been officially in office about six weeks, said his ideas had been shaped by listening to people from inside and outside the trust.

Anyone who would like their say on the plans can log on to www.airedale-trust.nhs.uk