08/03/06 - Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

He had a strong commitment and sense of duty to the community and had, over the years,held many posts including being a member of Bradford Health Authority. He was verysupportive of the work of the hospital and proud to be a member of the Governing body. Hewould be remembered with affection and gratitude. He was a wonderful man with a keensense of humour and would be sadly missed.3. Minutes of the last meetingThe minutes of the meeting held on the 11 th January were accepted as a true record.Proposed: David WalkerSeconded: Peter Sale4. Matters ArisingNone5. Corporate StrategyThe final version of the Corporate Strategy had been circulated and it was confirmed thatprogress would be reviewed throughout the life of the document. It was suggested thatsection numbers on the executive summary should relate to those in the main bodydocument.6. Revised ConstitutionThe proposed changes to the Constitution were discussed. It was confirmed that thechanges in numbers to the Staff Governors had been with their full agreement. In line withguidance, the elected governors should be in the majority and therefore carefulconsideration had been given on how to achieve the reduction in Partner Governors andensure that organisations were fully represented in other forums, if not on the Board ofGovernors.It was proposed that the Standing Orders would be amended in line with the changes to theConstitution and both would be brought to the next meeting for acceptance with theConstitution prior to seeking approval from Monitor. It was pointed out that implementationwould not be until April 2007 when the term of office for the governors would be complete.7. Finance ReportIn presenting the Finance Report Miles Scott advised that the original financial plan hadbeen that the Trust would break even this year. However 2 historic items in the accounts,that were non-recurring, would lead to a deficit of £1m. In addition, staff in corporate areasof the Trust had been asked to submit applications for voluntary redundancy and voluntaryearly retirement. As a result of this, in the current year there would be a one off cost of £2massociated with this restructuring and therefore there would be a technical deficit of £3m.Monitor had agreed to the Trust running this level of deficit. Monitor’s financial rating forTrusts was between 1 and 5. BTH started with a rating of 2 and due to the strong cashposition anticipated this improving to 3. It was possible that media coverage would beadverse when the deficit was declared but it was stressed that it was a planned deficit andit was not because costs were out of control.In response to comments received, he apologised that the restructuring plans had not beendiscussed with the Board of Governors in advance but that the outcome should mean thatthere would be no need to consider compulsory redundancy. He also agreed that anyunderspend generated on staffing would not give rise to backfilling by expensive locums.Increased drug expenditure related to NICE guidance would be a cost pressure as fundingreceived was not likely to be in line with expenditure. However, where possible, the Trustwould reduce costs through the Performance Improvement Programme.