Bailiffs sent into NHS trust

Debt collectors had to be sent into an NHS trust to retrieve late payments, the BBC reports.

Leicester city council officials sent in bailiffs to University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust after it failed to pay ?420,000 in business rates.

The city council claims that it sent the trust a series of reminders and a court summons after it stopped receiving payments as of August 2005. Council leader Roger Blackmore said the approach was necessary to show a fair and consistent approach.

“We treat the trust the same way we would treat any corner shop,” he said. “It’s important people know that we’re an even handed administration and it doesn’t matter who it is, we expect payment to be made on time.”

A trust spokeswoman blamed an administrative error for the late payment, adding that the trust had paid the bill as soon as the error became apparent.

“Since then we have tightened our procedures to make sure this never happens again,” she said.

The trust owed rates on the Leicester General Hospital, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and a pub it had bought for conversion.

Last week, NHS trusts were warned against deliberately delaying payments in a bid to reduce their 2005-06 deficit. It was suspected that some trusts planned to carry salary and tax payments for March over to the new financial year.

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