Published: 03/03/2005, Volume III, No. 5945 Page 14
Over half of NHS finance directors in England say the government's move to delay the payment by results rollout will increase their organisation's financial risk.
And nearly half (45 per cent) of the representative sample of finance directors from across strategic health authorities and acute and primary care trusts told the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants that their organisation will lose out financially because of the delay.
The accountants' body carried out the survey shortly after the government announced payment by results would only be rolled out for elective activity in 2005-06. The decision to delay applying the tariff to emergency activity for non-foundation trusts until next year was taken after Department of Health calculations showed it would cause a£1.5bn 'imbalance' across the NHS (news, page 5, 13 January).
The move was seen as an emergency measure to halt a process that looked set to trigger a financial crisis in many areas because of increases in emergency activity.
The sudden change meant that trusts and PCTs were left scrambling to recalculate financial forecasts for 2005-06. Some acute trusts are fearful that PCTs will contract for less work than trusts had budgeted for under payment by results, reducing their income expectations.
However, almost all of the survey respondents said the delay would not help to ease the financial pressure on their organisations in the short, medium or long term.
ACCA health policy head Sharon Cannaby said: 'The message is clear: the delay is unwelcome. They need certainty for effective financial planning and the delayed roll-out has extended the current period of limbo.' According to the ACCA survey, over two-thirds of organisations that expected to do well under payment by results warned that most of the gains would get sucked into shoring up deficits to balance the books.
www. accaglobal. com
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