At least five NHS trusts have paid less than one per cent of their bills to suppliers in ten days over the past year, despite a previous government pledge to do so.
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) used the Freedom of Information Act to reveal the lack of consistency in prompt payments in the NHS, more than a year after all public bodies were urged by government to pay bills within ten days to help small firms through the recession.
The research showed that while some NHS trusts are paying more than 90 per cent of their bills within ten days, others are failing to process any in the required timeframe, and some are failing to pay one in five invoices within 30 days.
Tameside Hospital NHS in Lancashire emerged as the best-performing trust in England for 10-day payment, paying 94 per cent of invoices within ten days. Three trusts in London and the south east were joint worst – reporting zero per cent of invoices processed within ten days. And The Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust only processed 18.7 per cent of bills within a month.
McCabe said: “This postcode lottery reflects what we found when we carried out similar research on payment among local authorities. Many public bodies don’t appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet and small businesses are suffering as a result.”
When compared with local authorities, NHS trusts perform much more poorly on prompt payment. Recent research found 44 per cent of invoices to English councils were being paid within ten days, but only 31 per cent of bills were paid as quickly by NHS organisations.