UK. NHS Foundation Trusts

Citation

(2003), "UK. NHS Foundation Trusts", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 16 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2003.06216bab.009

UK. NHS Foundation Trusts

NHS Foundation TrustsKeywords: NHS, Care standards

In December 2002 Health Secretary Alan Milburn published A Guide to NHS Foundation Trusts, which sets out details of the programme of decentralisation for NHS hospitals and freedom from Whitehall control. The Guide explains how NHS Foundation Trusts will be run, how they will ensure the highest standards of care will be delivered to NHS patients, and indicates a timetable for their establishment.

Mr Milburn said: "NHS Foundation Trusts will usher in a new era of public ownership where local communities control and own their own their local hospitals. NHS Foundation Trusts will be part of the NHS, providing NHS services to NHS patients according to NHS principles – services free, based on need not ability to pay. They will be subject to NHS standards, to NHS star ratings and to NHS inspection."

"They will be owned and controlled locally not nationally. Modelled on co-operatives and mutual organisations, NHS Foundation Trusts will have as their members local people, members of staff and those representing key organisations such as PCTs. They will be its legal owners and they will elect the hospital governors. In place of central state ownership there will be genuine local public ownership."

NHS Foundation Trusts will operate according to a license, issued and monitored by an independent regulator, accountable to Parliament, to guarantee NHS standards and NHS values, and will be guaranteed in law freedom from Whitehall direction and control. They will operate on a not for profit basis, earning their income from legally binding agreements with PCTs based on a national tariff. They will not be able to undercut other NHS hospitals.

They will also be free to borrow either from the public sector or the private sector, and will be able to retain any surpluses and any proceeds from the more efficient use of their assets where this is for the benefit of NHS patients. The proportion of private patient work undertaken by any NHS Foundation Trust will be strictly capped to its existing level.

It is anticipated that by putting staff and public at the heart of the service the Foundation Trusts will have the freedom to innovate and develop services better suited to the needs of the local community.

Further information: The Department of Health's A Guide to NHS Foundation Trusts can be found on the Department's Web site at: www.doh.gov.uk/nhstrusts/index.htm