NHS: Foundation Trusts Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Warner
Main Page: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Warner's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(11 years, 1 month ago)
Lords Chamber
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress the NHS Trust Development Authority will have made by April 2014 with NHS Trusts becoming NHS Foundation Trusts; and when they forecast that the Authority will have completed its work.
My Lords, in the light of Robert Francis’s recent report, we have allowed the NHS Trust Development Authority to agree trajectories for NHS trusts to reach foundation trust status that go beyond 2014 on a case-by-case basis. In doing so, we will ensure that the primary focus of the NHS Trust Development Authority and of NHS trusts themselves is on improving the quality and sustainability of services for patients.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Does he recall that in a recent Written Answer to me he identified 26 acute hospitals under the stewardship of the TDA which have cumulative deficits running into hundreds of millions of pounds? Does he agree that many of them are unsustainable and potentially unsafe and need their services reconfigured? Will he tell the House why the Government refuse to publish the review by Sir Ian Carruthers on the procedures for service reconfiguration and why they resist publication by declining FOI requests?
My Lords, there is no doubt—and we have never denied this—that there will be a hard core of organisations which will be very difficult, if not impossible, to bring to foundation trust status. For those trusts, it is necessary to look at other options, including, for example, mergers. That work is being taken forward. Although some trusts are in deficit, the NHS TDA is working very hard to mitigate those deficits in-year and when the first quarter board papers are published in September we will know what its predictions are for all trusts for the current year. I will come back to the noble Lord on the report of Sir Ian Carruthers because all FOI decisions are reviewed at regular intervals to make sure they are current. I want to make sure that there is a plan to release that information in due course. I am sure that there is.