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Review of NHS Foundation Trusts

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007

The Healthcare Commission (the statutory name of which is the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection) published the outcome of a review of NHS Foundation Trusts on 5 July, 2005.

The review was commissioned by the former Secretary of State for Health, Dr John Reid, on 19 November 2003 and has examined the experiences, challenges and issues for those trusts that became NHS Foundation Trusts on 1 April 2004 and 1 July 2004. In particular, the review considered the effects that NHS Foundation Trusts had on access to and quality of healthcare and relationships within local health economies, and the impact of the new governance arrangements and obstacles faced by NHS Foundation Trusts.

The outcome of the Healthcare Commission's review shows that NHS Foundation Trusts have made a good start and that their creation has made hospitals more responsive to their local communities and accelerated investment in patient care. The Healthcare Commission's review found that NHS Foundation Trusts have:

  • increased the ability to plan and develop new services and improved accountability to their local populations;
  • used their financial freedoms to gain access to capital investment and make quicker decisions to accelerate improvements to services, for example, offering specialist services in the community;
  • increased local public and patient involvement by successfully recruiting members and electing members to the Boards;
  • mostly maintained their finances well within a more rigorous framework of financial management;
  • maintained standards of care in terms of access to and quality of care; and
  • maintained positive relationships with local commissioners and other local providers. 

The Healthcare Commission's report also shows that some of the original concerns about NHS Foundation Trusts have not materialised, for example NHS Foundation Trusts: 

  • have not destabilised local health services, for example by using unfair competition to attract staff;
  • have continued to invest in staff education and training;
  • have in the majority of cases continued to worked in partnership with other NHS services and organisations in the local health community.

A copy of the report on the Healthcare Commission's Review of NHS Foundation Trusts is available at www.healthcarecommission.org.uk

 

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