VERY GOOD coverage today in the Dorset Echo of the moves being proposed at Dorset County Hospital to reduce the £7.5 million deficit run up by the NHS Foundation Trust.

The hospital’s interim chief executive Derek Smith tells the paper that 30-40 jobs will go in the next few months, then 150-160 more over the rest of 2010. All services are going to be scrutinised.

Only one thing is really missing from the Echo’s exclusive interview with Mr Smith. He’s not pressed enough on why this is happening in a Foundation Trust. This kind of trust is given more freedom to innovate and manage its own affairs, and it’s given that freedom because it’s supposed to be capable of doing so. But if things go wrong, it’s not bailed out. A Foundation Trust has to make cutbacks all on its own. And that’s what happening now.

Mr Smith is asked by the Echo: “Would you say the hospital is in this position because of bad board management?”

He replies: ”I think there weren’t specific controls in place, although many of the staff were recruited for good reason. More consultants were recruited because that improved the quality of the service, we employed more cleaners so the hospital would be more hygienic, more nurses so that they could provide a better quality of ward level care, more administrative and clerical staff to manage targets. All of these in their own right are not bad things – we did it to an extent that was too great for our finances.”

In other words, the Trust thought that improving its services would attract more patients to the hospital and that the revenue from those extra patients would cover the cost of improving services. But, it obviously hasn’t worked out that way. The Trust gambled – and lost.

Update: For the BBC’s take on this story, click on this link here.