Financial directors are always trying to reduce what's called working capital, which is money tied up with customers or in stock, less what is owed to suppliers.
The average of 12 hours extra a week was higher than financial directors (11 hours) or lawyers (nine hours).
Declining staff morale is now the factor of greatest concern to hospital financial directors, according to a report by the King's Fund health think-tank.
Yet, when it comes to real power and influence, the glass ceiling remains firmly intact: the vast majority of women on FTSE 100 boards are non-executive directors, not chief executives or financial directors.
The number of hospital trusts predicting a deficit has increased steadily in the past year, from just one in 15 a year ago, to one in five today, according to the King's Fund's quarterly survey of NHS financial directors.
Trustees can be skeptical: In our experience, many financial directors have come from a financial background and recognise the importance of having alternative growth strategies and ways of achieveing these, including the use of finance.
