'We will reveal plans to tackle hospital debts'
HEALTH chiefs at Staffordshire's biggest hospital are to give a public briefing on how they are tackling spiralling debts.
The official deficit facing the University Hospital of North Staffordshire rose to nearly £10 million last month – but can only be kept to that level if it receives bail-outs totalling £14 million from the local primary care trusts and the region's strategic health authority.
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CRISIS: Former finance director John Maddison.
Finance director John Maddison departed as the crisis deepened and union officials for the 7,000 workforce warned jobs and salaries could be hit.
Mr Maddison had been in the role for less than a year.
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Now leaders of the trust running the hospital have pledged to give the public an update on action being taken to tackle the overspend.
Chairman John MacDonald said: "We need to keep the community abreast of how we are responding to these financial challenges so we shall be holding a press briefing on the issue shortly."
He added that the move was needed because the next public board meeting of the trust is not due until February 1 – nearly two months since the last one.
Meanwhile, Mr Maddison has been replaced by interim finance director Graham Bennett.
Much of the debt has arisen because of record numbers of patients at A&E who need to be admitted to a bed.
It forced the trust to reopen 80 beds it had planned to shut as part of a programme to shift services into the community.
The hospital could also be fined by commissioners for keeping A&E patients waiting too long.
Comments
by cooljay
Thursday, January 10 2013, 12:54AM
“Very easy more Nurses and less managers.
Do we need a paperclip counting manager on £40k with an asssistant on £30k,these are not real jobs but this is what modern hospitals seem to have.Staff doing pointless roles for high pay with zero common sense or empathy or candor.
This debt will only snowball as the time to fix it will be months and also the lack of understanding that many patients go to other providers because the waits are too long and care is poor.Eg Current eye waitling list.
A public Briefing is going to solve what!!! Fix the problem not talk about it.”
by VINCEPRINCE
Thursday, January 03 2013, 8:01PM
“How did such incompetent clowns get the jobs in the 1st place?”
by DoctorDo
Thursday, January 03 2013, 7:11PM
“The community nurses struggle to cope with their workload because there are fewer of them than there's ever been before. As nurses leave or retire they're not replaced meaning the remaining ones have larger areas with more patients.
Instead of fining the hospital when targets aren't met, which only penalises the public, why not have some form of sanction against the managers? For instance, a portion of their salaries could be performance related, or they could lose some of their holiday entitlement. That could focus their attention on giving good care and lead to them taking ownership of the Trust's problems.”
by mommanoesbest
Thursday, January 03 2013, 4:56PM
“The PCT should not be penalising the hospital - how can taking money away improve services?”
by Patricia_62
Thursday, January 03 2013, 12:59PM
“It should read the Trust were forced to open 80 beds as the PCT have continually failed to provide the Community Services they agreed to and failed to provide alternative out of hours options so the good people of Stoke on Trent use A&E as a GP Surgery. The Trust take the rap for the PCT failings. Too right they should pay for the services they fail to provide.”