Dozen trusts named for second consultants turnaround scheme

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Regulators have named 12 more NHS trusts that will work with management consultants to improve their finances, as well as setting out a “fee structure” for paying the companies for the work.

HSJ has seen documents produced by NHS Improvement that name the trusts accepted on to the second wave of its “financial improvement programme” (see box below).

Six of the trusts are in London, including Imperial College Healthcare, which also worked with PwC as part of the first wave of the programme. The documents said a “considerable number of trusts are applying” to be added to the list.

NHSI said organisations taking part have been selected “on the basis that they have or had the best potential to meet the scheme’s aims”. Some of the organisations are expecting to post surpluses this year.

Trusts will have to pay the companies for the work but the documents said 15 per cent of the fee will be contingent on the resulting financial performance.

Second wave of turnaround trusts

These are the 12 trusts named in the documents, and their Q3 year-end financial forecast and turnover:

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust (£2.1m deficit, £552m turnover)
Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust (£7.5m surplus, £1.03bn turnover)
The Royal Wolverhampton Trust (£5.4 surplus, £529m turnover)
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust (£1.2m deficit, £607m turnover)
North Middlesex University Hospital Trust (£9m deficit, £287m turnover)
The Whittington Hospital Trust (£6.4m deficit, £301m turnover)
Lewisham and Greenwich Trust (£32.3m deficit, £532m turnover)
Royal Free London FT (£39.4m deficit, £1bn turnover)
The Hillingdon Hospitals FT (£800,000 surplus, £253m turnover)
Imperial College Healthcare Trust (£16.8m deficit, £1.1bn turnover)
Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust (£250,000 surplus, £395m turnover)
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust (£7.5m deficit, £213m turnover)

Twenty trusts were in the first wave of the programme, for which £25m was made available. NHSI has said the work identified £100m of efficiency savings, but has not responded to HSJ’s requests for a more detail on the return on investment.

The regulator has said there is no specific budget for the second wave.

Of the 15 per cent contingency fee, 10 per cent will be based on generating a return of at least six times the investment in 2017-18, with another 5 per cent based on delivering the same return in the subsequent year.

A 10 per cent “success fee” will also be available for any cases that achieve a return of 10 times the investment.

Non-recurrent savings identified will be recognised at 80 per cent of trust’s income and expenditure impact.