Comment / Cautious steps back

We are all too aware of the pressures on the NHS as clinical colleagues start to address the backlog and restart services. This will not be a quick process and will need investment in people and infrastructure. The HFMA is here to support you with all your issues and my colleague, Emma Knowles, and her policy team are on hand to provide the usual high level of technical support.

The vaccination programme gives us hope – we can be proud as a country in achieving something significant. I’ve been volunteering at my local vaccination centre and most people are overjoyed to be receiving their vaccine. We need to ensure this high uptake continues into the lower age groups and complete the job.

At the association, we will be taking a cautious step back in terms of our events programme. Our hub events will revert to face-to-face from September, although only a few branches will take this approach in the autumn.

I’d like to put on record my thanks to all our branch and committee heroes who have kept the show afloat. The HFMA is in a much better place now than it was this time last year. We’ve been able to pay back our staff for their salary sacrifice made at the height of the first wave. I know that you all think our staff are special, because I get lots of comments. I agree!

We’re also planning for two big conferences. The summer conference will run virtually this month and then we have our annual conference in December. Please don’t delay and get your bookings in as soon as you can. We are planning for a hybrid face-to-face and online event, with a full-scale conference in London. But if we have to limit numbers, then this will be done by giving priority to those who book earlier.

In other news, the HFMA has a new home in Bristol. Our current facility is being closed and refurbished, so we’ve been on the lookout for new premises for a couple of years. We’ve found something suitable and have purchased a smaller office directly opposite our current building. HFMA House, as it will be called, will be renovated in line with its grade II listing. It will provide enough space for staff working in a hybrid way, as well as meeting spaces.

Looking ahead I have some exciting news. We already have our leadership lined up for the next two years, with Owen Harkin becoming president in December for 2021/22 and Lee Bond following in 2022/23. But I can now announce that the HFMA board is putting forward Claire Wilson (pictured), director of finance at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, to be our next vice president (2021-23) and president (2023/24).

That means we now have strong leadership in place for the next three years and I look forward to working with all three presidents for their respective years in office.

The NHS faces significant challenges in the coming years and the finance function will have a major role in meeting them. The HFMA will continue to play its part in supporting you.