Health Foundation response to NAO report on NHS finances

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO), Whitehall's spending watchdog, released today (Wednesday, 16 December 2015) raises yet further concern about the worsening financial position of NHS acute hospital trusts.

Anita Charlesworth, Director of Research and Economics commenting on the Sustainability and Financial Performance of Acute Hospitals report, said: 'The state of NHS finances is truly dire. Clearly something has to change, and change fast.

'There appears to be no national plan or dedicated resource in place to enable the NHS to deliver the scale of efficiencies needed to dig itself out of this financial hole.

'There needs to be a new, dedicated transformation fund overseen by a single body to plan how the NHS will increase its efficiency and develop new models of care. Without dedicated resources specifically for transformation, the NHS will be unable to become more productive and the bill for running costs will only get larger.

'The alternative is that the NHS will simply not be able to deliver the range and quality of services we have come to depend on.'

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In July, the Health Foundation and The King’s Fund called for the establishment of a Transformation Fund to help deal with the urgent need to support and accelerate change in the NHS. Further infomation is available here. 

For more information please contact Creina Lilburne on 020 7257 8027.