Top NHS managers 'to rescue failing hospitals'

Managers from top-performing NHS hospitals are to be sent into failing ones in England to try to improve them.

Bonus payments will be available to trusts if standards are raised at failing sites, in a move that echoes the "super-heads" scheme for schools.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there were a "handful of inspirational leaders" who were "anxious to help".

Labour said what the hospitals needed was more nurses on the ground.

Eleven trusts were put in special measures in July following a review into trusts with high death rates.

Ministers will set out later how those 11 trusts will be twinned with more successful hospitals.

Mr Hunt said that management consultants had been favoured in the past, but they had only identified problems - rather than solving them.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The problem is making actual changes on the ground.

"Attracting the right leaders would give these hospitals the best chance of real change."

He went on: "Generally, successful hospitals attract good people and we are looking to find a way to get these good people to other hospitals."

These managers' posts would be back-filled, he said, adding: "These people are anxious to help us turn around these failing hospitals, they want to play their part".

The 11 trusts were placed in special measures after a review by NHS medical director Prof Sir Bruce Keogh.

Prof Chris Ham, chief executive of the King's Fund think tank, said: "Bringing in experienced NHS managers has huge potential as long as they are given enough time to bring about change and have enough resources, and, crucially, their own hospitals are able to have the right leadership while their focus is elsewhere."

'Management solution'

He added that previous attempts to use the skills of managers at successful trusts had led to performance at those organisations being dragged down as hospitals were "much more complex than schools".

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "This is a management solution, not a front-line solution.

"What Keogh revealed was that many of these trusts have lost staff in recent years and what they need is more nurses on the ground."

Mr Hunt agreed that understaffing was "one of the problems" in these hospitals. However, he insisted: "It's not just that, it's about leadership, culture, training... To get that right you need to have the right people leading the hospital."

Sir Bruce was asked to look at standards of care at the 14 trusts with the worst death rates, following the Stafford Hospital scandal.

Among the problems identified were:

• patients being left on trolleys, unmonitored for excessive periods
• poor maintenance in operating theatres, potentially putting patients in danger
• patients often being moved repeatedly between wards without being told why
• staff working for 12 days in a row without a break
• backlogs in complaints

But Sir Bruce said while the failings were significant they had found nothing on the scale of the Stafford Hospital, where hundreds suffered neglect and abuse.

The 11 trusts in special measures are:

• North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
• Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
• George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
• Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
• Medway NHS Foundation Trust