Treatment centre programme in disarray as contracts axed
The Department of Health has been forced to scrap a large swathe of its second-wave independent treatment centre programme nearly a year after it first invited private sector healthcare organisations to bid for the lucrative contracts, HSJ has learned. The ITC programme appeared in disarray this week as it emerged that seven of the 24 local schemes - all part of the multi-million-pound second- wave elective surgery contract - have been axed, with the rest being delayed by up to a year.
The climbdown came after the DoH was forced to acknowledge claims by strategic health authorities and primary care trusts that more elective capacity was not needed in their regions.
This week the DoH also announced plans for an independent clinical audit of the first wave of the ITC programme following surgeons’ concerns over the clinical quality of many operations carried out at the sites.
And the news comes as a high-profile independent sector company bidding to provide a practice in the North West pulled out, criticising delays in the process.
In September the DoH sent a ‘pre-qualifying questionnaire’ to prospective private healthcare providers, setting out the 24 elective surgery contracts on offer across the country. HSJ understands that many of the bidders had already been invited to negotiate with the DoH for the work.
However, last week companies bidding for the work received letters from the DoH’s commercial directorate telling them that seven of the contracts had been scrapped.
The letter said: ‘It has become clear for a variety of reasons that the detailed make-up of the schemes needs to be reviewed and that these schemes will not go ahead as part of the phase-two procurement programme. We are currently exploring options to replace the capacity of these schemes.’
HSJ understands that the DoH has told private providers that the monetary value of the schemes - £550m worth of work per year - will still be guaranteed. Meanwhile the other 17 remaining schemes have been delayed for up to a year.
A DoH spokesperson said: ‘We have responded to the changing needs of a small number of health authorities.
‘We continue to work with each of these SHAs to ensure that they have plans in place to deliver better services to patients using the independent sector’.
NHS Confederation policy director Nigel Edwards said: ‘What is becoming increasingly clear is that the level of surgical elective capacity is enough, if not too much. The problem is now one of patient flow rather than capacity, and there has been a growing anxiety that too much capacity had been procured and this has become a big issue.’
He said that the private providers would be ‘pretty disappointed that they have put in so much work’ and suggested that they may want their costs reimbursed. ‘The private sector providers will be pretty aggrieved.’
NHS Alliance chair Dr Michael Dixon welcomed the announcement. ‘The DoH must not straitjacket commissioners into telling them what they have to commission,’ he said. ‘They desperately need the blessing of PCTs and practice-based commissioners. If they are in doubt they should delay in order to get it right for commissioners.’
The second part of the wave two contract known as the ‘extended choice network’, under which the DoH was set to buy elective services on top of the initial national schemes, has also been delayed indefinitely. However, the diagnostic element of the second wave is unaffected.
The SHAs with the cancelled projects
* County Durham and Tees Valley: multi-specialty treatment centre
* Birmingham and the Black Country: Birmingham City treatment centre to be housed on site at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals trust
* South Yorkshire: cardiology treatment centre
* South Yorkshire: general surgery treatment centre
* South West Peninsula: multi-specialty mobile unit
* West Yorkshire: plastic surgery unit
* West Yorkshire: multi-specialty treatment centre
http://www.hsj.co.uk/nav?page=hsj.news.story&resource=4703772
The climbdown came after the DoH was forced to acknowledge claims by strategic health authorities and primary care trusts that more elective capacity was not needed in their regions.
This week the DoH also announced plans for an independent clinical audit of the first wave of the ITC programme following surgeons’ concerns over the clinical quality of many operations carried out at the sites.
And the news comes as a high-profile independent sector company bidding to provide a practice in the North West pulled out, criticising delays in the process.
In September the DoH sent a ‘pre-qualifying questionnaire’ to prospective private healthcare providers, setting out the 24 elective surgery contracts on offer across the country. HSJ understands that many of the bidders had already been invited to negotiate with the DoH for the work.
However, last week companies bidding for the work received letters from the DoH’s commercial directorate telling them that seven of the contracts had been scrapped.
The letter said: ‘It has become clear for a variety of reasons that the detailed make-up of the schemes needs to be reviewed and that these schemes will not go ahead as part of the phase-two procurement programme. We are currently exploring options to replace the capacity of these schemes.’
HSJ understands that the DoH has told private providers that the monetary value of the schemes - £550m worth of work per year - will still be guaranteed. Meanwhile the other 17 remaining schemes have been delayed for up to a year.
A DoH spokesperson said: ‘We have responded to the changing needs of a small number of health authorities.
‘We continue to work with each of these SHAs to ensure that they have plans in place to deliver better services to patients using the independent sector’.
NHS Confederation policy director Nigel Edwards said: ‘What is becoming increasingly clear is that the level of surgical elective capacity is enough, if not too much. The problem is now one of patient flow rather than capacity, and there has been a growing anxiety that too much capacity had been procured and this has become a big issue.’
He said that the private providers would be ‘pretty disappointed that they have put in so much work’ and suggested that they may want their costs reimbursed. ‘The private sector providers will be pretty aggrieved.’
NHS Alliance chair Dr Michael Dixon welcomed the announcement. ‘The DoH must not straitjacket commissioners into telling them what they have to commission,’ he said. ‘They desperately need the blessing of PCTs and practice-based commissioners. If they are in doubt they should delay in order to get it right for commissioners.’
The second part of the wave two contract known as the ‘extended choice network’, under which the DoH was set to buy elective services on top of the initial national schemes, has also been delayed indefinitely. However, the diagnostic element of the second wave is unaffected.
The SHAs with the cancelled projects
* County Durham and Tees Valley: multi-specialty treatment centre
* Birmingham and the Black Country: Birmingham City treatment centre to be housed on site at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals trust
* South Yorkshire: cardiology treatment centre
* South Yorkshire: general surgery treatment centre
* South West Peninsula: multi-specialty mobile unit
* West Yorkshire: plastic surgery unit
* West Yorkshire: multi-specialty treatment centre
http://www.hsj.co.uk/nav?page=hsj.news.story&resource=4703772
posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic at
7:18 AM
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