HFMA 2017: Orchard calls for long-term review

In his speech to the association’s annual conference on 7 December, Mr Orchard (pictured) said: ‘The NHS will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year, so surely we need start laying the foundations now for its 100th birthday by starting with a meaningful review of how we might take steps to ensure that the NHS remains fit for the next generation and the generation beyond that.’

He continued: ‘The alternative is an unmanaged drip feed of what the NHS can no longer do, which potentially leaves us to sleepwalking into a forward reality that incrementally erodes the NHS offer without any informed longer-term planning nor mandate from either service users or the taxpaying public.’

Under incoming president Alex Gild the HFMA would work in partnership with others to create an evidence base that would inform some future scenarios and choices.

Addressing the immediate financial challenge facing the NHS, Mr Orchard said the service had now arrived at the business end of the year – managing winter pressures while delivering on full-year commitments and planning for 2018/19. He urged the profession to ‘keep going’ and to continue supporting each other. The HFMA network was robust and continued to strengthen, with membership increasing by 7% this year.

In the past, the finance network had provided leadership, direction and momentum to enable frontline colleagues to deliver services to patients. It was time to do so once again.

Mr Orchard added: ‘I’m reminded of the famous Barack Obama quote from his 2008 campaign speech when he said let’s not “wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for”. We are the ones. There is no one else – no army of accountants or alternative group of finance leaders with a better plan nor greater experience than we have in this room today.’

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg (pictured) told the conference not to expect any big, politically driven changes in the NHS in the short-term.
She said the government was focused on the exit from the European Union and the ‘political bandwidth’ was not available. She added: ‘Behind closed doors, politicians will say the current model is not sustainable. But where as a country do we want to be – to spend more and pay more tax? There are others who say we should do something more radical and have an honest conversation as a country about what people should get from the NHS. But politicians are so terrified of the public reaction that, for now, they just won’t do it.’

A government would need a big majority or cross-party agreement before it would open such a debate, she said.