Alan Milburn sets the ball rolling for Government initiative to help raise standards in hospitals
Health Secretary Alan Milburn has announced the names of the first NHS trusts to apply for foundation trust status ' the Government's initiative to help raise standards in hospitals and primary care trusts.
A total of 29 trusts from all parts of the UK ' including King's College Hospital, Brad- ford Hospitals and Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare ' have reached the three star status needed to apply to be a foundation trust. If the applications are accepted, the first foundation trusts should be established by April 2004.
Foundation status aims to give trust managers more freedom over local decision making, allowing them to borrow money from banks and finance capital programmes without prior approval from the Treasury.
Similar healthcare models are used successfully in Spain, where some hospitals are owned by the State, but run by private management.
The Government has rec- eived criticism that the plans could potentially create a two-tier health service, where foundation trusts get access to more resources at the expense of failing hospitals.
However, Milburn said all NHS hospitals will have the opportunity of becoming a foundation trust over the next four to five years and there was great support for the scheme.
'The whole idea of NHS foundation trusts came out of discussions with NHS hospitals. There has been substantial interest from NHS hospitals in becoming one of the first generation of NHS foundation trusts. They will be NHS hospitals but with greater freedom to run their own affairs. Freeing NHS foundation trusts from day to day Whitehall control will encourage greater local innovation in how services are delivered,' he said.
