Birmingham Children’s Hospital has been on the brink of financial distress over swingeing Government cuts to funding for specialist hospitals. Health Correspondent Alison Dayani talks to chief executive Sarah-Jane Marsh on how she has managed to turn the trust’s fortunes around.

Just six months ago, the chief executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital faced an impending nightmare that could have seen her having to juggle services to meet millions of pounds worth of cuts from the Government.

On top of Whitehall’s imposed savings plans for all hospitals up and down the country, Sarah-Jane Marsh also faced a drastic cut to “top-up” payments on the most specialised children’s treatments.

Payments worth millions of pounds which are vital in maintaining the vast types of life-saving operations at what is now one of the largest and most specialised children’s hospitals in Europe.

In a reversal of fortunes, a compromise has now been reached with the Department of Health and the Children’s Hospital is in a perfect position to become a major centre for cardiac, trauma and neurosurgery services, all of which are being reviewed nationwide.

“There was a huge debate and we worked with other specialised children’s hospitals and the Department of Health to get an agreement,” said Ms Marsh. “I am pleased with how it turned out as we get exactly the same amount of money this year as last year.

“But we don’t want to be doing these discussions every year so children’s hospitals are looking at another piece of work to get a final answer on payments. We are confident of getting a significant review on top-up payments to sort this out once and for all.”

A leaked internal memo from the Department of Health revealed in November that plans were afoot to slash “top-up” fees, or extra money given to children’s hospitals for more expensive specialist treatment, by 30 per cent.

It would have meant that if a normal NHS hospital is paid £100 to carry out an operation on an adult, Birmingham Children’s Hospital would be paid £125 instead of the previous amount of £178 for the same treatment on a child, which costs much more due to its more specialised, intricate nature.