Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Editor's letter.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent

If you want a job that has equal measures of pressure, hard work, conflicts of interest and huge significance, the NHS could be the perfect place for you. We hear constantly about budgetary constraints, a lack of beds and long waiting lists; the private finance initiative has received mixed reviews; and hospitals have now come under scrutiny for their cleanliness, or lack of it. Add to this a dearth of key personnel (doctors and nurses), and you have quite a situation on your hands.

But, while many of us look to the government to sort out the problems, the people who often have to make the big decisions are the financial managers who set and control budgets. Accountants in the NHS are working increasingly closely with their non-financial colleagues to ensure that every penny is stretched as far as possible.

In Finland, hospitals are doing away with accountants altogether and encouraging doctors to do their own accounting (page 15). While this may sound quite radical (and not altogether good news for accountants), many UK managers in other sectors are already taking on much of the financial management traditionally carded out by the finance department. While this may mean that some finance jobs are no longer needed, it also means that financial managers can use their understanding and knowledge to...

To continue reading

Request your trial
COPYRIGHT TV Trade Media, Inc.
COPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT