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One Message from the Chief Executive May 2010

Our finances will decide our future


Dear colleague,
We have now entered a new financial This begins with us achieving a good
year, one which will shape the long-term Financial Risk Rating (FRR) of 3.8. The FRR
future of St George’s. I want to use this One is used by Monitor, the FT independent
Message to underline to colleagues just regulator, who has set out a number of
how crucial it is that we all work together to requirements for trusts to meet in order to
ensure that we meet our financial targets be fit for FT status.
for 2010/11.
In order for us to achieve a good FRR we
St George’s has come a long way since need to be seen to be a financially viable
organisation with strong liquidity, and this
2005 when the trust reported the worst
is achieved through delivering a certain
financial deficit in the NHS. We have made level of surplus, managing aspects of
significant progress since that time and it is financial management such as debtors,
thanks to the dedication and hard work of creditors and stock as well as managing our
staff across the organisation that our future capital spend.
is still in our own hands. I am pleased to
report that we recorded a trading surplus of We have identified that we will need to
£2.6million in 2009/2010. This means that deliver a trading surplus of £6.5million
we have achieved a trading surplus three as one of the ways that we can achieve
years running. We have also successfully this. We also need to support a capital
stayed within our Capital Resource Limit programme of £24.5 million for which we
and External Finance Limit which are have planned investment. Projects such as
statutory requirements set out by the our neonatal and paediatric unit expansion,
Department of Health. acute medical unit development and a
breast screening unit refurbishment are
But while it is important to acknowledge examples of what we aim to achieve.
our successes we must also prepare
ourselves for 2010/11. Without doubt this I have talked before about 2010/2011
will prove our most challenging year to being the year in which we aim to clear our
date as we work to meet a cost reduction historic debts. We have been paying off our
Our values programme of £42million against the loan year on year and aim to pay off the
backdrop of the UK’s economic problems remaining portion of £16million in full by
+ excellent + which are set to have a major impact on September 2011. The £12million that we
NHS finances. will be receiving from the Challenged Trust
+ kind +
Board, which was established to reduce
+ responsible + The scale of the 2010/11 challenge
the debts of London trusts, will assist us in
paying this debt; £8million of this came
+ respectful + at the end of 2009/10 and will appear as
Our targets for this year are ambitious surplus income on our accounts. A further
but they must be met if we are to achieve £4million will be given to us in 2010/2011, if
Foundation Trust (FT) status. we deliver against our agreed targets.
Achieving our goals If we are able to deliver on all our CQUIN
targets we stand to benefit from the
CQUIN monies which are worth £5m, so
In order to achieve the challenges set out
it is important that we work towards this.
above we will need to deliver a robust cost
CQUIN, which stands for the commissioning
reduction programme. We have started
for quality and innovation, is a payment
to review our expenditure on goods and
framework that makes a proportion of the
services to see where we can make both hospital’s income conditional on quality
efficient and effective savings. With the help and innovation. Its aim is to support the
of divisions and directorates across the trust vision set out in High Quality Care for All
we have managed to identify areas in which (2008) of an NHS where quality is the
we can reduce our costs and also areas organising principle.
that will help us save money. On top of
this, we have the corporate cost reduction
programmes which have been worked up Making our vision a reality
centrally to identify further savings.
The above are just some of the targets that
An example of a project that will help us we will need to meet if we are to achieve
deliver a saving of around £5million is the our vision of being a thriving Foundation
transforming procurement programme Trust at the heart of an integrated
healthcare system. One that delivers
which looks at the methods the trust uses
improved patient care in the community,
to acquire supplies. This includes sourcing,
hospital and specialist settings, supported
contracting and how we distribute and
by a unique and nationally recognised
manage our supplies. The aim of the
programme of research, education and
programme is to free up clinical staff time employee engagement.
so that staff are able to focus on providing
excellent patient care by increasing the Let’s all keep this vision at the forefront of
responsibilities, capacity and capability of our minds as we work towards securing our
the procurement team. finances and ensuring St George’s future.

Another key project is our plan to integrate


with Community Services Wandsworth. The Regards
aim of this project is to create an integrated
care organisation focused on improving
the patient experience and outcomes by
linking community care and hospital care
even more closely. Integrated clinical teams David Astley
could provide complete patient pathways, Chief Executive
spanning community and acute care. This
Our values should help reduce avoidable admissions
into hospital and reduce the time inpatients
+ excellent + have to spend in hospital. It should also
help to improve local access to outpatient
+ kind + and diagnostic services by moving more
services off the acute hospital site and into
+ responsible + the community.

+ respectful + Through these changes we will be able to


provide improved care to our patients and
be able to profit from increased activity and
fairer tariffs to the tune of some £13m.

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