THE listening banks have covered their ears, and the banks that like to say “yes” have said “no”, so the NHS has had to launch its own bank in order to back its riskiest venture yet — foundation trusts.

Running a bank might seem a distant cry from tending to the sick, but government ministers have taken the unprecedented move to give “commercial” loans to their new “commercially run” foundation trusts, reports Health Investor (Nov). The first loans from the Foundation Trust Financing Facility (FTFF) are expected to be taken by Moorfields and Homerton Trusts, the journal says.

Although the trusts have been given borrowing powers, the merchant banks have shunned them because they are unhappy with the fact that trusts can’t offer their assets as security against loans. And no one knows if lending banks could get their money back if a foundation trust goes bust.

The FTFF is financed by Department of Health cash, and interest on loans will be below commercial levels. But despite the toytown financing system, the man charged with regulating foundation trusts, Bill Moyes, is annoyed that they are not being treated as proper businesses by trust managers, auditors and accountants, reports Health Service Journal (Nov 25).

By implication, they are not treating “his role with the seriousness it warrants”, says HSJ. “For better or worse, no one is going to be left in any doubt of his position.”

And Moyes is indeed very serious. He has just laid into Bradford NHS managers after Bradford Teaching Hospitals foundation trust moved from a planned profit to a large deficit in the first few months of its gaining foundation status. Managers at the acute and primary care trusts are too busy trying to win against each other, rather than co-operate, he says. Isn’t that called business?

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