Learning the lessons from financial failure in the NHS focuses on a small minority of NHS organisations that experienced very significant, and in some cases rapid, financial failure. It identifies the common themes leading to financial failure and proposes a series of indicators that will help NHS organisations to identify and avoid financial failure in the future.
This report examines what lessons can be drawn from organisations that have failed and what management action might prevent such failure in the future or aid recovery.
Included in this report are recommendations for:
- the boards and executive management of all NHS bodies
- the boards and executive management of NHS trusts
- the boards and executive management of Primary Care Trusts
- Strategic Health Authorities and the Department of Health
- the NHS Appointments Commission
- internal auditors
A number of financial, governance and local environmental indicators that can point to risk of failure and must bee recognised that no one indicator is crucial: it is the composite effect that is important, along with the direction of travel and rate of change.