HOSPITAL bosses will have to wait and see whether the Government will let them have more control over how they spend public cash on the local health service.

Leaders at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are applying to become a foundation trust that would give them more independence from government, greater powers to forge links with the private sector, and more power to direct cash into specific projects that would benefit patients in Worcestershire.

The organisation would remain part of the NHS but could go bankrupt in the same way as a failing business if it did not manage its money properly.

Patients would be represented on a council of governors, elected from within the foundation trust’s membership. Chiefs at the trust, which runs Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, were hoping to become a foundation trust this autumn but chief executive John Rostill said there was still a little longer to wait when he addressed a board meeting at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Mr Rostill said he received a letter on Friday, November 20 from the chief executive of NHS West Midlands, the regional arm of the Government, saying they will reserve support until certain key targets are being met.

Mr Rostill said the organisation had been given a 2.5 rating which was “perilously close” to a three rating. That would mean the application would be ruled out altogether. However, Mr Rostill said improvements had been made since the rating was given. He said the trust is now hitting almost all the compliance framework set by Monitor, the organisation that oversees the work of all foundation trusts.

Mr Rostill said after the meeting: “They want to be absolutely sure there’s sustained performance. When we put our bid in, we were close to being unacceptable in terms of the figures.

“Now we are almost as good as we can be. If the minister had to make a decision today, I’m sure he would say yes.”

Foundation trust compliance framework figures for October show that the trust is meeting all but one of its targets. The trust has to see, treat or discharge 98 per cent of A&E patients within four hours, while cancer patients should begin treatment within 31 days of being diagnosed.

l Your Worcester News reporter was the only member of the press at this meeting.