Trust Board papers November 2012 - Barking Havering and ...

Question:
Mr Skillman was pleased to read in the
Telegraph that the Department of
Health was looking to assist some
financially challenged Trusts with their
Private Finance Initiatives (PFI’s) and
wanted to know if anything had been
agreed with BHRUT for this financial
year, or would it be next year.
Mr Skillman mentioned that when
attending outpatients to see a
Consultant, if a follow-up appointment
was required, the patient had to go
back to book this at the desk and was
then informed that an appointment
letter would be sent in the post. He
questioned whether appointment cards
could not be re-introduced, which
would not only save posting costs, but
would also be more efficient for the
patient.
Response/Action:
Mr Wood confirmed that BHRUT was
one of the Trusts involved and the
Department of Health had used
BHRUT’s practices with its PFI partners
to share with other Trusts. Most of the
Soft FM contracts were non negotiable,
but some savings had been made on
initiatives led by the Trust.
The initial Bond for the PFI could not be
renegotiated, but the Trust was working
to achieve as many efficiencies as
possible outside the terms of the
contract.
Mr Wood informed Mr Skillman that it
was worth noting that the PFI had not
just been signed by BHRUT, it had
been agreed by the Strategic Health
Authority, the Department of Health and
the Treasury.
Mrs Hosein acknowledged that Mr
Skillman was absolutely right and this
was part of the outpatient improvement
project that was currently being
undertaken, but due to the Trust’s
Patient Administration System (PAS)
and how patients were booked, it was
not possible to do this. The Trust was
currently installing a new Savience
system (kiosks) for patients to book
themselves in for appointments. It was
acknowledged that the Trust currently
generated a lot of unnecessary letters
and the new Savience system would
improve this area in the future. Mrs
Hosein asked the public to bear with the
Trust in the meantime, as these
improvements involved a great deal of
process change, which would take time
to implement.
Mr Skillman noted that he was pleased
to see in the Finance Report that there
were now vacancy controls in place
and recruitment/new posts could only
be approved by the Chief Executive, or
the Director of Transformation.
Trust Board Meeting (Part I) 5 September 2012