The Health Service Journal has revealed the trusts benefitting most from specialised services spending. Research has shown that 19 acute trusts were paid almost half the £11.2 billion NHS England budget for acute specialised services in 2013-2014. In addition, NHS England’s 19 specialist hospitals shared 13% of the national budget, with the remaining 40% split between 51 independent and about 200 NHS providers. The data overall has shown that, although there is still a role to be played by smaller hospitals in specialised care delivery, in line with comments made by NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens, acute specialised services in England are already quite centralised. There is speculation that specialised services will be further centralised, while providers will be encouraged to network better. NHS England is due to publish a five year strategy for specialised services later this year.
Source: Health Service Journal
