University College Hospitals NHS Trust was a flagship foundation trust in 2004. It now has a £17.4million deficit and faces the intervention of government advisors. The hospital blames the 7 July bombings in London for causing the financial problems because of the cost to the hospital of providing support for the incident. [One might therefore ask - what is the point of a hospital if it can't afford to provide care?] Figures published by Monitor, which is the independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts, show that UCLH has the largest deficit of all foundation hospitals.
Unlike other NHS hospitals, foundation hospitals do not have to break even at the end of each financial year but they also cannot be bailed out by the government if they run into loss. Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has also said that her Department will not tolerate the projected £700million overspend by all NHS (non-foundation) Trusts.
For the full story, see:
Mulholland, J. (2005), Hospital blames £17.4m debt on London terror attacks, The Guardian, Friday December 16, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1669081,00.html.
