NHS experts blast ministers over unreformed accounting rules

News Article - 05 January 2007
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The Department of Health has been slammed by NHS chiefs for failing to revise its accountancy rules.

Ministers who chose not to overhaul the regulations will effectively be doubly punishing many trusts which are struggling financially, according to Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

"We are very disappointed that the Department of Health has not taken the opportunity of… [the] announcement to revise the NHS accounting rules which means that many trusts in financial difficulty are, in effect, penalised twice," she said.

Speaking with regard to the principle of resource accounting and budgeting, Ms Morgan stated that the confederation, along with the National Audit Office, would oppose the practice of double deficit, consisting of reducing a financially lacking company's income while carrying deficits over to the following year.

Numerous organisations within the NHS were working hard to strike a balance between their income and their expenditure, "but for many, the way that deficits are accounted for by the centre makes the challenge of financial balance extremely difficult," she added.

Last month, the confederation responded to a select committee report which indicated that NHS managers were at fault for financial problems within the service.

"We need to look at the whole picture and not make NHS managers the scapegoat for the financial problems facing some trusts," Ms Morgan said.

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