Audit shows improvement in NHS cashflow

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which manages Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester received a rating of three (performing well) in the just-published Auditor’s Local Evaluation for the year 2008/09.

The rating means the acute trust is deemed to be performing consistently above the minimum requirements. This is an imp-rovement on last year (2007/08) when the organisation received an overall rating of two (adequate) from the Audit Commission which assesses how well NHS trusts and primary care trusts have performed financially each year.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust also received a rating of three for overall performance for 2008/09 – an improvement on last year when the organisation rec-eived a rating of two.

The Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, which runs Newtown Hospital and the psychiatric intensive care unit in Worcester, received a rating of two. It improved on last year’s rating of one.

NHS Worcestershire, the organisation which manages GPs, community hospitals, dentists and commissions services in other NHS trusts received a score of three, beating last year’s figure of two.

For the first time, primary care trusts (PCTs) across England have been scored on their overall use of resources which bosses at NHS Worcestershire say makes for “a new and more demanding assessment”.

Brian Hanford, director of finance at NHS Worcestershire, said: “We welcome these scores from the Audit Commission. They show further evidence of improving financial stability within both NHS Worcestershire and the other local NHS organisations across the county.

“We anticipate that these scores, when fed into the forthcoming Care Quality Commission scores next month, will mean an overall score of ‘good’ for our use of resources.

“This demonstrates continuous improvement since our organisation was formed in 2006/07, and puts us in a strong position to face the financial challenges ahead.”