English trusts show £1.5bn surplus

The spending watchdog's 2009-10 assessment of how well NHS organisations manage their financial resources found sustained improvement in performance over the last five years and a surplus of some 2% of total NHS resources. The report ( PDF ), published on 14 October 2010, says that at year end cash balances held by hospital trusts amounted to £735m and primary care trusts' cash balances totalled £18m. It says that 94% of hospital and primary care trusts met or exceeded minimum standards, compared to 63% in 2005-06 when the assessment was introduced. In addition, 74% of trusts were found to be performing well or strongly financially, against 16% in 2005-06. The improvement is despite the fact that many of the better performing trusts have become foundation trusts and are no longer part of the evaluation. The six hospital trusts and four primary care trusts which failed to achieve financial balance this year are Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, Enfield PCT, North West London Hospitals, Peterborough PCT, Portsmouth Hospitals, South London Healthcare, Surrey PCT, Sutton and Merton PCT, Trafford Healthcare and West Middlesex University trusts. "Over the coming years all NHS organisations will be under more pressure to deliver high quality services without the levels of funding growth of the recent past," says the auditor, which is planned for closure by "Strong financial management will be particularly important in a period of transition to the new structures set out in the white paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS ."