Penalised for running too well

Yet that is exactly the situation Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is in as it braces itself for the likely onslaught of the norovirus again this winter.

And, yes, you read that ‘too well’ right. For all the problems our health trust has faced recently – and there have been plenty, as the Keogh Review pointed out – it seems that a decent financial performance in the first quarter of this year means it will now not get a much-needed £8.6m slice of funding to help see it through the coming months.

Of course, every organisation can increase its efficiencies if they look hard enough – perhaps through improving practice methods, perhaps through back-room cost saving. An obvious, if knee-jerk, reaction to such news of financial strain is to look at the pay packets of those who earn the most in the health trust – and ask if these salaries are truly justified.

But, regardless of that, the rejection of this bid seems absurd. This is an instance where the trust has clearly learned from problems that hit Stoke Mandeville’s A&E last winter in the wake of the norovirus outbreak and is taking steps to avoid a repeat of them.

And, before we even get to the possible winter sickness outbreak, we must also consider the improvements which the Keogh Review calls for. The fact is the kind of changes that need to happen in our health trust need funding to implement. Having more staff to care for patients costs more money – that is an inescapable fact.

So while we have not always been brimming over with sympathy at the situation the trust finds itself in, we do agree that it seems unfair it is being denied funding that will go to help other trusts operate more effectively.

We hope this latest bid for funding falls on more favourable ears when it goes to the NHS Trust Development Authority and NHS England – if not, it could mean another miserable winter for many patients.