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Andrew Way
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Free chief ploughs on with Foundation plan
But £16m owed to hospital may scupper scheme
THREE wards at the Royal Free Hospital closed last year to stave off a cash crisis will stay shut, the Hampstead hospital’s chief executive Andrew Way has confirmed.
The hospital boss, who is putting together a package to make the Free a Foundation Trust, taking it out of NHS control, said the beds lost in a cost-cutting exercise would not be reopened if the Foundation bid was successful.
The hospital also closed Queen Mary’s a specialist stroke unit, which will not re-open if the trust wins Foundation status. The hospital’s bed capacity at the moment is around 900 – 200 less than it could be.
Mr Way said: “The wards will stay closed. We can only afford to keep open what we have at the moment, and there is no point in doing any extra work if Primary Care Trusts will not fund it.”
The hospital published on Monday an outline for patients and staff of what Foundation status would mean. Foundation hospitals have freedom to borrow cash for capital projects privately, set employment terms and decide which disciplines they wanted to specialise in.
But it also means running the hospital like a private company and despite being crippled by a £10.5m debt just 18 months ago, Mr Way expects the Free to get Foundation status in October.
Monitor, the government health watchdog responsible for pouring over the Free’s budgets to make sure they are financially healthy, will make a decision based on a final bid made in July. Mr Way believes a stumbling block might be the massive debts they are owed by PCTs across London.
In 2006, the figure was around £30m and is projected to be around £16m this year.
He continued: “We do work for PCTs that are slow payers. We can’t blame just one – it’s right across London and we need to improve our ability to collect our debts.”
Camden’s PCT – and nearly 30 per cent of all patients at the Free are from Camden – does not have a debt with the Free.
Fears that Foundation Trusts can offer better wages than other hospitals and produce a ‘brain-drain’ effect creaming off top staff, were dismissed by Mr Way. He said salary rates would remain similar to other, comparable hospitals.
He said: “If you speak to NHS staff, money is not the main reason for choosing their job. Staff like a pleasant environment, and they think about how patients are looked after. They want good team work and good morale. These are the things we want to do well.
“We would not want to attract staff at the risk of other organisation, and it is unlikely we will introduce a new set of salary rates.”
Labour’s Hampstead and Highgate MP Glenda Jackson has criticised the creation of foundation hospitals, saying it creates a two-tier health service. Mr Way said the current system of PCTs buying services meant hospitals were already in competition with one another.
He said: “It does not change the position we are in. Foundation Trusts is government policy, and I cannot comment on government policy, but I will say we are in competition at the moment.”
Mr Way added he hoped to persuade more families to have their children born at the hospital.
He said: “We can expand our labour unit – we have space for another 200-300 births a year and we hope that will happen.”
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