Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust runs the 400 bed Barnsley Hospital in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. It became a Foundation Trust in 2005.

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
TypeNHS hospital trust
HeadquartersBarnsley
ChairTrevor Lake (from 1/1/2019)
Chief executiveDr Richard Jenkins (from 1/4/2017)
Websitewww.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk

In 2017 the trust established a subsidiary company, Barnsley Facilities Services, to which 140 estates and facilities staff were transferred. The intention was to achieve VAT benefits, as well as pay bill savings, by recruiting new staff on less expensive non-NHS contracts. VAT benefits arise because NHS trusts can only claim VAT back on a small subset of goods and services they buy. The Value Added Tax Act 1994 provides a mechanism through which NHS trusts can qualify for refunds on contracted-out services.[1]

Performance

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Four-hour target in the emergency department quarterly figures from NHS England Data from https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/

In May 2014 it emerged that the Trust, after being investigated for "financial irregularities" was in the red to the tune of £7.4m after repeated failure to hit national accident-and-emergency targets which resulted in the trust spending 10% more than expected.[2] Jane Ashby the finance director was sacked in December 2014 after it was discovered that one-off income had been misrepresented in the accounts and that predicted cost savings were over-stated at £6m when they amounted to only £2m. The trust expects to be in deficit of £12 million in April 2015.[3] The trust has been threatened with "cessation of the supply of key drugs, doctors from the trust’s preferred medical locum agency and catering" by suppliers because of its financial situation.[4]

In 2014/5 the trust was given a loan of £18.5 million by the Department of Health which is supposed to be paid back in five years.[5]

It was the first trust in England to adopt a new digital portal allowing patients to receive and respond to appointment letters digitally, in March 2017.[6]

In October 2019 it was the only trust to hit both the 4 hour NHS targets.[7]

G4S Integrated Services (G4S) was awarded a three-year contract in March 2014 to deliver healthcare cleaning services at the hospital.[8]

It implemented a new e-prescribing system in May 2022. This van chart drugs, complete rounds and administer medications.[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "In full: Trusts with staff transfer plans". Health Service Journal. 14 February 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  2. ^ "Health emergency: Time for a radical solution". Yorkshire Post. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  3. ^ "NHS finance chief sacked over 'irregularities' at hospital". Yorkshire Post. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Bailouts top £870m as trusts struggle to pay bills". Local Government Chronicle. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  5. ^ "11 trusts whose DH bailouts were converted to loans". Health Service Journal. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Four trusts to save million through digital appointment letters". Healthcare Leader. 6 October 2017. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  7. ^ "Pre-election figures show record-low A&E performance". Health Service Journal. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  8. ^ "G4S Integrated Services wins Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Cleaning Contract". G4S. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  9. ^ "Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust deploys e-prescribing tool". Digital Health. 18 May 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
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