Daily Insight: Everybody needs good neighbours

The break-up of the country’s worst-performing mental health trust demanded by local MPs should only be an “absolute last resort”, says the senior acute chief executive advising on yet another fresh bid to turn around the trust’s fortunes. 

As revealed yesterday by HSJ, East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust boss Nick Hulme will spend two days a week for at least the next three months advising Norfolk and Suffolk FT and local system leaders on reviving the mental health provider’s fortunes.

Mr Hulme said there were “no easy answers” for the trust, which even its own chair concedes is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon following the trust being rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission for the fourth time earlier this year. 

The former Croydon CEO, who will remain in his ESNEFT role, was chosen for the role in part because he led the turnaround of Colchester hospital, which came out of special measures in November 2017 after four years – a record length of time to have been in the regulatory regime. He is also a senior figure in one of the health economies served by NSFT.

Asked if the trust should be broken up, he said structural change was “not a panacea [and] should be the absolute last resort”.

U-turn of the week

Last week, ministers trumpeted a new “expectation” that GPs would see all patients within two weeks, but a week is a long time in health politics.

On Monday evening, NHS England said it was delaying the policy until April, which would have paid practices a greater amount if they saw more patients within a fortnight.

GP practices will be paid the cash regardless of what percentage of patients are seen within two weeks. Practices will be able to use the funds for additional capacity over winter.

The guidance letter, from primary care and community services director Amanda Doyle, said NHSE was “retiring or deferring to 2023-24 four investment and impact fund indicators, worth £37m, and allocating this funding to [primary care networks]… for the purchase of additional clinical services or workforce to increase access to core services this winter”.