Bill Moyes

Bill Moyes is Chair of Monitor - the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts, in the UK.

Biography

 * 1974: joined the civil service, where he "held a variety of posts in the Departments of Environment and Transport, the Cabinet Office's economic secretariat and the Scottish Office."
 * 1990-1994: Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management of the Management Executive for NHS Scotland.
 * 1994-2000: worked for the Bank of Scotland Group as Head of Infrastructure Finance. According to The Guardian, Moyes "set up the group's private finance initiative team, which was involved in £500m worth of NHS and education PFI schemes over six years."
 * July 2000: was appointed director general of the British Retail Consortium.

Bill Moyes and the Bradford Teaching Hospitals crisis
When Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the first hospital trusts in Britain to be given foundation status, ran into financial trouble, Moyes made an unusual decision as to who to appoint to try to sort out the mess.

According to The Observer, "Moyes decided to appoint a team of American recovery specialists, Alvarez and Marsal, to try to develop a new financial plan for the hospital. [Bradford chief executive David] Jackson pleaded with Moyes not to use the men from New York. 'He told them that it wouldn't go down too well in Bradford,' one hospital manager said. 'But Moyes was adamant that he wasn't going to use KPMG or any of the usual lot.' When the New Yorkers arrived at Bradford Royal Infirmary, they were in for a surprise. Many of the staff did not understand their accents, and they, in turn, appeared to know very little about the NHS. One consultant said: 'This guy had a piece of paper and kept asking me how many dollars it would cost to perform a particular operation. I told him: "We don't actually work in dollars here. It's pounds and pence, I'm afraid." It was completely farcical.' The report prepared by A&M cost the trust £160,000, a sum they could scarcely afford." 

How Moyes opposed increasing the minimum wage
In March 2003, in his capacity as director general of the BRC, Moyes opposed increasing the British national minimum wage (NMW). He said:


 * "By provisionally accepting a recommendation to raise the NMW to £4.85 in early 2004, the government is breaking its promise to not make rises in NMW without due regard to the economy, levels of employment and inflation. This follows from a recent significant increase in the level of the NMW... When we come to 2004, £4.85 may be an excessive increase, pitched at far too high given the conditions at that time. It would become a tax on jobs and job creation, leading to recruitment being cut, hours reduced and existing jobs being lost across the whole industry - ending the retail sector's ability to create jobs and power the economy."

SourceWatch resources

 * Alan Milburn
 * Alvarez and Marsal
 * Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
 * Foundation Hospital Trusts
 * Government-industry revolving door
 * Monitor - the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts
 * Peter Garland