NHS financial crisis: 81 investigated organisations revealed

As concerns deepen over the financial crisis within the NHS, Accountancy Age reveals the 81 Trusts and health authorities that were investigated by KPMG's turnaround teams in December.

The 81 organisations are a combination of primary care trusts, NHS trusts and strategic health authorities.

PCTs are now at the centre of the NHS and control 80 per cent of the total NHS budget. There are more than 300 PCTs covering all parts of England. They have been in place since April 2002 and report directly to their local Strategic Health Authority. As well as buying and monitoring services, they are positioned to help local GP practices, NHS trusts and other parts of the NHS think more innovatively about how they deliver better, more convenient care to their local patient communities.

Hospitals in the NHS are managed by NHS trusts (sometimes called acute trusts). These Trusts make sure the hospitals provide high quality health care, and that they spend their money efficiently. Their wide-ranging services are commissioned – or purchased - on behalf of patients by PCTs. Increasingly, NHS Trusts are being commissioned by PCTs to provide services in the community closer to where people live.

Strategic Health Authorities are responsible for managing and setting the strategic direction of the NHS locally. They support PCTs and other NHS organisations and make sure they are performing well.

Accountancy Age revealed yesterday that the number of NHS trusts examined by KPMG for poor financial management had soared more than 50% above original expectations.

A Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health showed that KPMG investigated financial problems at 81 health bodies, which is nearly a fifth of all NHS organisations, in just two weeks in December.

Turnaround teams from the firm had been widely reported to be investigating the financial management at about 50 trusts, after health secretary Patricia Hewitt revealed that NHS finances were approaching a £1bn deficit for 2005/06.

KPMG delved into the financial affairs of 81 NHS trusts, primary care trusts and stategic health authorities over two weeks before Christmas by undertaking ‘baseline assessments’, led by partner Alistair Groom and DoH’s Richard Gleave.

Andrew Lansley, Conservative shadow health secretary, said: ‘The scale of the problem is obviously larger than we were originally led to believe.’

Here is a full list of the trusts...

Strategic health authorities:
Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA

Essex SHA

North West London SHA

North Central London SHA

South East London SHA

South West London SHA

Surrey and Sussex SHA

Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA

Shropshire and Staffordshire SHA

South Yorkshire SHA

South West Peninsula SHA

Birmingham and the Black Country SHA

West Midlands South SHA

Hampshire and IoW SHA

West Yorkshire SHA

County Durham and Tees Valley SHA

North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA

Cheshire and Mersey SHA

Thames Valley SHA

Primary care trusts:
Cambridge City PCT

South Cambridgeshire PCT

Suffolk East (Ipswich and Suffolk Coastal PCTs)

Suffolk West PCT

Broadlands PCT

Southern Norfolk PCT

Hillingdon PCT

Hounslow PCT

Kensington and Chelsea PCT

Chelmsford PCT

Witham, Braintree and Halstead Care PCT

West Wiltshire PCT

South Wiltshire PCT

Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT

Cotswold and Vale PCT

North Sheffield PCT

South West Sheffield PCT

South East Sheffield PCT

West Sheffield PCT

Bedfordshire Heartlands PCT

Wandsworth PCT

New Forest PCT

East Hampshire and Fareham & Gosport PCTs

Blackwater Valley and Hart PCT

North Stoke PCT

Sedgefield PCT

Selby and York PCT

Cheshire West PCT

NHS trusts:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Trust

West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust

Bedford Hospitals NHS Trust

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust

Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust

The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust

Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust

The Royal West Sussex NHS Trust

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Brighton and Sussex Univ Hosps NHS Trust

Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

West Middlesex University NHS Trust

Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust

North-West London Hospitals NHS Trust

Royal Wolverhampton Hospital NHS Trust

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hosps NHS Trust

Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust

University Hospitals of North Staffordshire NHS Trust

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust

The Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust

East Cheshire NHS Trust

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust

George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust

St George's Healthcare NHS Trust

Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust

Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust