The circle of NHS life

What a year it’s been! The main event was the announcement of a large injection of funding into the service.  As I write, working groups are looking to develop a long-term plan for the NHS, and NHS Improvement and NHS England are busy merging – or not merging!

When I started at the association in 2000, someone told me the NHS tended to work in cycles. Sure enough, the direction of travel is now very much towards strong regions with a smaller centre – we even have a new ‘NHS plan’. It could recycle the old strapline – ‘a plan for investment, a plan for reform’ – although the investment is not yet enough and we also need to see a plan for social care.

With each region in England being £10bn-£20bn, it is hard not to make comparisons with former regional health authorities or the more recent strategic health authorities with a smaller, but powerful, executive sitting above them. The HFMA’s role is perhaps one of the constants – part of the system, supporting one of the key functions crucial to the delivery of transformation and sustainable health services.

It is interesting to see how the system is reshaping itself despite a legislative framework designed for a different structure. It will be good to see strong regional leaders and finance directors emerge as we take on the next phase in the service’s development. We all know that the settlement isn’t quite what everyone wanted and there will be considerable strings attached. It’s important we work together to deliver the best healthcare for our population.

If you are reading this at the annual conference, on Friday at the annual general meeting our new president, Bill Gregory, will unveil his theme for the year. I think you’ll find it galvanises us to cope with the changes we face.

Our president for 2017/18 has of course been Alex Gild. Our first mental health leader and one of only two people who have represented the South Central patch, Alex has worked tirelessly to promote the HFMA. His theme, Your NHS, your HFMA: brighter together has struck a chord with members and captured perfectly the need for the NHS and its partners to work collaboratively to integrate services and meet the needs of patients and growing demand.

I’d like to thank Alex for his tireless commitment during the year. He has never shirked from the task. His good humour, wise counsel and continuing support have been enormously helpful to me and my colleagues.  He remains on the HFMA board and will very much be part of our activities going forward.

Bill is our second mental health finance director, like London buses – we’ve had 67 years with none and then two turn up at once! This is particularly appropriate given the priority being given to improving mental health services as part of the long-term plan as we look to deliver parity of esteem between physical and mental health.

The AGM will also see the association install Owen Harkin as a vice president alongside Caroline Clarke, who becomes president in 2019/20. Owen, our first non-English president, and only our second Northern Irish leader, will lead us in 2020/21. So, we have exciting times ahead and we look forward to continuing to support our members and the wider finance community. See you all in 2019.