St George’s response to today’s HSJ article on PwC report
In response to the article published by the HSJ today in to the independent report by PwC ‘Forensic review and assessment at a Glance and Recommendations’, St George’s response is as follows:
The period covered in the report is now more than a year ago. A great deal has changed at the trust since the report was produced. Over the course of the last 12 months a substantial amount of effort has gone into strengthening the financial systems and management of the trust.
The report acknowledges that operational pressures last year drove increases in costs and reductions in income for hospitals like St George’s. The board received the final report in October and accepted all 75 recommendations for improved systems and financial management. More than 80 per cent of these have now been implemented with the remainder in progress for completion by the end of March.
As well as improving financial and management systems, the trust’s turnaround programme is generating improvements in the underlying financial position. The deficit is reducing and we are taking the action required to return to financial balance. This has been as a result of the tremendous effort from everyone at the trust. We have worked hard to ensure the savings have not come at the expense of quality and patient experience.
We would like to point out that the summary including our recommendations and commentary are available on the trust’s website. As has always been the case the full report is available at the trust.
