RESIDENTS have given an overwhelming thumbs-up to long-awaited plans to give hospital managers more independence.

A public consultation in Oxfordshire has supported Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust’s bid to become a foundation trust.

The status would let residents become governors and give members a say on how services are run at the trust, led by chief executive Sir Jonathan Michael.

The authority, which runs Oxford’s John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals and The Horton at Banbury, would also be able to also retain surpluses and borrow cash more easily.

A public consultation from June to October found “clear support” for the plan, a trust report to managers said on Thursday.

About 300 people attended 16 public events and almost 300 staff attended meetings at trust hospitals.

Of those who filled in a questionnaire, 240 supported the trust’s vision for what the status would mean while just 14 opposed it.

The vision seeks to exploit links with the university allowing pioneering research to help its patients.

But it warns: “We need to be cost-effective and to make sure that the increasingly tight financial resources available to the NHS and the economy as a whole are used in the best possible way.”

Foundation trusts , introduced in the early years of the last Labour Government, are regulated by health watchdog Monitor and require its approval to get the status.

The consultation drew supportive responses from councils and education and health providers across the county, the trust said.

The county’s joint health overview and scrutiny committee watchdog said while it backed the plan, it remains concerned about massive private finance initiative (PFI) loan repayments.

Managers face a £53m annual bill to pay back private firms which built developments like the Oxford Cancer Centre under PFI. The trust last year spent £717.8m against an income of £725.8m.

Committee chairman Dr Peter Skolar said: “I’m supportive of the trust going to foundation trust status, providing it can satisfy Monitor with its financial status, especially in view of its PFI payments.”

He said The Horton Hospital must have managers’ “full support”.

The trust board agreed to pursue the application with minor changes to how it would be governed, including having five clinical and one non-clinical governors instead of four and two.

Director of planning Andrew Stevens said there had been “overwhelming” support for the plan.

He said of the public events: “We found it an incredibly valuable exercise, not just in terms of the feedback on the foundation trust proposals but generally in terms of wider feedback.”

  • NHS foundation trusts are not-for-profit, public benefit corporations that are part of the NHS’s network of hospital, mental health and ambulance health authorities.

They were introduced in 2002 in a bid to devolve decision making to local areas, and are not directed by Government.
Supporters say foundation trusts have greater freedom over finances.

They are accountable to governors and members. Staff and residents can become members and chief officers can be answerable to tens of thousands of people.

The trusts are also regulated by watchdogs the Care Quality Commission and Monitor, which oversees only trusts with that status.