Will hospitals be fined? (From Witney Gazette)

Will hospitals be fined?

7:48am Thursday 21st December 2006 in Witney

HOSPITALS in Oxfordshire will face multi-million pound fines if they treat too many patients under new Government plans.

The Department of Health has launched a tough regime of fines, which are designed to stop hospitals carrying out too much treatment, the Gazette has learnt.

Health managers say the fines are needed to prevent hospitals 'deliberately' carrying out too much work, as a way of generating extra cash. But Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon last week condemned the plans, and said they left the NHS in an 'absurd' position.

Dr Harris said: "Fining hospitals for treating patients, when the Government's actual policy is payment by results, shows how absurd today's NHS has become. Still, it keeps the accountants in work, which appears to be Labour's main aim."

Hospitals are 'commissioned' by primary care trusts to carry out an agreed amount of treatment each year. But it is claimed, some hospitals are slashing waiting times in a bid to treat more patients than agreed. This allows the hospitals to squeeze more money from the PCTs, and fuels overspending and deficits.

Now, the Gazette has learnt that PCTs will be allowed to fine their local hospitals if they treat too many patients.

They will be able to issue fines of up to two per cent of the value of the contract they have with the hospital.

A typical contract between a PCT and a hospital is about £100m, which means the hospital could have a staggering £2m penalty slapped on it for over-performing.

The Gazette has also learnt that from 2008, PCTs will be able to hand out the same levels of fines if hospitals miss the Government's latest target of treating patients within 18 weeks of GP referral. Strategic Health Authorities will act as regulators of the new penalty system, and intervene if it is thought the fine is unfair. A Department of Health spokesman said: "The PCTs need to manage their resources, and this is a way of making sure both the trusts and the PCTs work within their financial means.

"The contract will be agreed at the beginning of the financial year, and there shouldn't be any problem with delivering that contract. It's only if something unexpected happened that fines could be used.

"We want patients to be seen as quickly as possible, but we recognise the PCT have to stick within their budgets."

The fines come after East Suffolk Primary Care Trust refused to pay Ipswich Hospital £2.5m earlier this year, because it was treating patients too quickly.

The hospital had agreed with the trust that patients should wait at least four months for treatment, but doctors breached the agreement.

A spokesman for the South Central SHA said that they could not comment until they had received the fine detail of the scheme.