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Monitor calls for doctors to play key role in Trust Special Administration
Doctors should be involved in any Trust Special Administration needed when an NHS foundation trust can no longer provide sustainable patient services, according to the health regulator.
Monitor set out a key role for clinicians in guidance about how Trust Special Administrators should carry out their statutory role. The move is intended to ensure Trust Special Administrators are well placed to act in the interests of patients.
The guidance includes detailed instructions to help Trust Special Administrators engage with the local population as they draw up plans for patient services. Trust Special Administrators have a duty to carry out a public consultation to make sure that the views of the public are taken into account.
The guidance also makes clear that Clinical Commissioning Groups are responsible for deciding the particular services that must continue to be provided in the local area under any reorganisation proposed by the Trust Special Administrators. These are known as Location Specific Services.
Monitor’s current role is to appoint Trust Special Administrators when a foundation trust is likely to become insolvent. In the future Monitor will also be able to make an appointment where a trust cannot provide quality services. The powers will be used when other attempts to stabilise the trust have failed.
When Trust Special Administrators are appointed, they must prioritise the delivery of services to patients. This means they will work with commissioners and other local healthcare organisations to find a clinically robust and sustainable way of providing services in the long term.
Dr David Bennett, Chief Executive of Monitor, said:
“Trust Special Administrators will only be called upon in exceptional circumstances, when we have worked with a foundation trust to explore all other options for safeguarding patient services. It is clearly vital that clinicians are closely involved in the decisions that administrators have to take, both in finding a sustainable long-term solution for patient services and running the failed trust in the interim.
‘We are grateful to patients, providers and commissioners for the suggestions we received during our consultation on the draft guidance. This will help us ensure that, should Trust Special Administrators be appointed, local patients will continue to receive good quality health services that meet their needs.”
Notes to editors
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For media enquiries please contact Isabella Sharp, Media Relations Manager, on 020 7340 2442 (Isabella.sharp@monitor.gov.uk)
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Monitor has powers to appoint Trust Special Administrators under the NHS Act as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. These powers are similar to those held by the Secretary of State in respect of NHS trusts, and which were recently exercised for the first time by appointing an administrator to South London Healthcare NHS Trust. In the government’s response to the Francis Inquiry, the Secretary of State announced that in the future Monitor will also be able to appoint Trust Special Administrators where a trust cannot provide quality services.
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Monitor is the sector regulator of NHS-funded health care services. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 its fundamental duty is to protect and promote the interests of people who use them. Information about Monitor’s role can be found here.
