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Twelve hospitals to miss foundation trust deadline
Anna Davis16 Feb 2009
Half of London's hospitals will miss a deadline that would allow them to become more financially independent, health bosses have revealed.
The Department of Health has said that all hospital trusts must be ready at least to apply to become foundation trusts by December next year.
The Health Service Journal reported that in London there are 24 acute hospitals which are not foundation trusts and remain under the control of NHS London but of those, only 12 are expected to meet the deadline.
To be a foundation trust a hospital must demonstrate it has the financial competence to take a greater part in running its services.
According to NHS London, the hospital trusts unlikely to be able to apply are: Barking Havering and Redbridge; Barnet and Chase Farm; Barts and The London; Bromley; Epsom and St Helier; Great Ormond Street; Newham; North West London; Queen Elizabeth; Queen Mary's, Sidcup; West Middlesex; and Whipps Cross.
Great Ormond Street is only on the list because it has a legal restriction against becoming a foundation trust which it is challenging.
Outside London there are only eight hospitals across the country expected not to be ready in time.
There are fears that hospitals which miss the deadline could be taken over by more successful trusts.
Geoff Martin from London Health Emergency said: "There is mounting evidence of serious problems with the structure of health care services in London.
"For too long the bureaucrats have been papering over the cracks and the harsh financial and service delivery issues are now coming home to roost."
But a spokesman for NHS London said it is "highly unlikely" that any London hospitals would be taken over by other trusts.
He added that there are a number of trusts expected to become foundation trusts after December next year.
Reader views (1)
"must demonstrate it has the financial competence" being the point. They can't even keep their equipment clean or budget for staff costs let alone killing people with bugs they never had before they went to a hospital. Rightly so they shouldn't become Foundation Trusts (who, by the way, are less answerable, being 'self-governing').
- Real, London, 16/02/2009 17:09
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