Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the financial deficit of that Trust.

Mr Philip Dunne

Department of Health ministers have had no recent meetings or discussions with representatives from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust regarding its financial deficit over the last six months.

On 17 October 2016 NHS Improvement announced Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has entered Financial Special Measures.

The Financial Special Measures programme launched by NHS Improvement provides a rapid turnaround package for trusts and foundation trusts which have either not agreed savings targets (also known as control totals) with local commissioners, or planned to make savings but deviated significantly from this plan.

As part of financial special measures, each trust agrees a recovery plan with NHS Improvement. The trusts also get support from – and are held accountable by – a Financial Improvement Director appointed by NHS Improvement.