Partnering with the private sector to provide health services could have seen taxpayers’ cash poured “down the drain”, a hospital boss has said.

He made the comment as managers from the Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust (ESHT) were grilled about their plans to win foundation status for the two centres at a council meeting.

They hope St Helier can achieve the status, which would give it greater financial freedom, by partnering with Tooting’s St George’s Hospital – which is set to formally bid to join its southern neighbour in the coming months. Both centres are used often by Merton patients.

At a meeting on September 21, one councillor asked why a private organisation could not join St Helier to achieve the status – another questioned St George’s financial stability.

Managers said more private sector involvement had been considered, but it was decided the bidder must be an NHS organisation as this was the cheapest, quickest and less risky option – although the partner could be supported by a private company.

Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of ESHT, said: “Staff have had a number of false dawns.

"If we had gone to the private sector we would potentially still be talking about this in three years and there would be a lot of public money down the drain.”

Councillor Brenda Fraser asked: “Are you not worried about what appears to be St George’s lack of financial management in the past?”

In response Trudy Kemp, head of strategic development at St George’s, told the meeting at the Sutton Civic Offices that her hospital had delivered a budget surplus for the past four years, with a forecast surplus of £6.5m this year.

The Epsom and St Helier bosses told councillors the trust could not answer questions about the services provided in the new arrangement of hospitals, which was a matter for commissioning groups.

Why the change now?

Foundation status is a structure designed to give hospitals more independence from Government and allow the public a bigger say in running them.

The Government wants all hospitals to have foundation status, but last year managers at Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust decided it could not meet the financial criteria needed to make the switch.

It announced plans to split the trust in half and invited neighbouring trusts to bid to merge with their hospitals.

Trusts have until November 11 to bid, and the new structures are likely to be announced in January 2012.

Consultation under fire

A consultation that could decide St Helier’s fate was ridiculed last week.

Councillors claimed this summer’s survey was flawed and did not attract enough responses.

They complained questions were long-winded, unclear and contradictory.

However, others pointed out the research findings that gave better outcomes and benefits for patients were sensible.

Manager John Sargeant said: “We made every effort we could to get as many people as possible involved – that’s a fact.”

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