New foundation trust watchdog appointed
pharmafile | December 4, 2003 | News story | |
The head of the new independent watchdog to monitor NHS foundation trusts has been named as Bill Moyes, current Director-General of the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Mr Moyes will take up his post as Chair of the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts in January and will oversee the granting of foundation status to NHS trusts as well as their subsequent performance.
The newly appointed regulator told the Financial Times he plans to make a 'quick check' on applications in order to make a judgment in time for an April deadline.
"I hope we can do that. I can understand it would be very disappointing for the trusts if April came and went and nothing happened," he said.
Twenty-five three star NHS trusts have entered the preparatory stage to become foundation trusts, but Mr Moyes said all would face serious scrutiny before being given clearance.
"No one would be served if we just ticked a few boxes and told them good luck and then found out later that there were a lot of problems," he said.
The regulator will be accountable to parliament with a brief to give foundation trusts as much freedom as possible while still safeguarding the public interest and protecting NHS patient needs.
Before heading up the BRC, Mr Moyes worked for the Bank of Scotland Group, ending up as Head of Infrastructure Finance, and prior to this he was Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management of the Management Executive of NHS Scotland.
In addition to Mr Moyes the regulator will be made up of a Board of up to four other members, including a deputy Chair. It will be responsible for authorising trust applications for Foundation status, setting the terms of that authorisation and monitoring their compliance with these terms.
Parliament passed the bill to establish foundation trusts by the narrowest of margins in November, and added further amendments to counter claims that they would create a two-tier NHS. One key concession made is that now all NHS trusts will have the opportunity to apply for foundation status by 2008.
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