UK: Monitor to announce next foundation trusts:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The UK regulator of foundation hospitals, Monitor, is preparing to announce the next round of NHS trusts that will operate as foundation hospitals from January 1. Nine applications are currently being considered and Monitor told Clinica it was expecting to announce its verdicts over the coming week. A further 11 applications are due to be appraised in the first quarter of 2005, to begin operating on April 1. In the light of the financial pressures reported by the existing 20 trusts - and in particular the crisis at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust - the Department of Health will have something to consider ahead of next year's review of the terms and conditions under which foundations hospitals are obliged to operate.