Tour de force

Mark Orchard (pictured) has completed his nationwide tour of our branches, the first leader to accomplish that feat since Bill Shields in 2009. Mark has been a superb president – staking his claim to be the first ‘gen X’ leader, his Twitter account ever at the ready.  

His blogs have been informative and reflective and who can forget his entrance into our lives as president? He has also been very supportive of the staff in encouraging us to continue the HFMA’s long process of development.  We’ve seen a real focus on membership during this year, with strong growth figures in all categories. 

His theme – Everyone counts –has been uplifting and in my view that’s a major role for the HFMA in these difficult times. The recent Budget settlement was welcome, but not enough to meet the demands facing the NHS. We have produced our latest analysis of the half-year figures and finance director views in our NHS financial temperature check. And HFMA head of policy and research Emma Knowles underlined in a recent blog that there are difficult decisions ahead following the Budget announcement. 

We speak to the service continually and I hope that next year we can provide further help and support. Some people criticise us for not being more vocal – but those people misunderstand the role of the HFMA in providing a conduit to those in power. And we’ve certainly been doing that. We are acutely aware of the issues and are communicating loud and strong to those in power. In many cases, we see this as the most constructive way of reflecting the service’s views.

And so we move on. Our new president –Alex Gild, chief financial officer at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – has come through a traditional route as branch chair and a founding member of the South Central Branch in 2008. Alex will introduce his year on the Friday of annual conference, providing the perfect follow-up to Mark’s Everyone counts year.

We’ve only had one previous leader from South Central area, way back in the 1970s, so it’s great to see another. Recently I’ve done a bit of work tallying up where the elected leaders have come from. The West Midlands leads with 12, followed by South West on 10 and Yorkshire on 8. Every region has been represented, which is great and Bill Gregory, who follows Alex, will take the North West total up to seven.   

One region where we have been working hard to develop our activity is London. Our capital branch is growing thanks to a hard working bunch of volunteers led by Kate Anderson.  So I’m delighted that our 70th president in 2019/20 will be Caroline Clarke from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, who is also former chair of the branch. Her election to vice president will be announced at the annual general meeting on Friday 8 December. 

We will be saying goodbye to three trustees – Chris Hurst, Susan Goldsmith and Shahana Khan. All three have made long and enduring contributions to the association and I’d like to personally thank them for all their efforts. 

So, onto our annual conference, where the association assembles. We have a different format this year but we trust you will enjoy it if you’re coming. See you there!