Karin Smyth, the Labour MP for Bristol South has asked the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to halt the procurement of a ten year contract worth over £1 billion for adult community services in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
The local Clinical Commissioning Group is launching a tender to find a single provider to run all core adult community services in the area. including urgent and reactive care, speciality advice teams and the formation of new primary care teams.
In a letter to Matt Hancock Ms Smyth’s points out that launching a competitive procurement process for a 10 year contract at this time is “clearly at odds with the ambitions of the proposals within the [long-term] plan”.
Nationally, concerns about competitive tendering have led NHS England to recently ask the government to remove the obligation on commissioners to advertise NHS contracts.
These services are currently run by three different providers, with two of the three contracts expiring in 2020.
Privatisation?
The CCG has not disclosed whether any other providers are interested. The area borders on Bath and North East Somerset where in 2016 Virgin Care won a £700 million contract to run over 200 community and social care services for upto ten years.
One of the current providers in the area is Sirona, a social enterprise, has stated that it will bid for the contract as a single provider to take over the community services in the whole region. extending its current contract for South Gloucestershire.
The other two current providers, Bristol Community Health and North Somerset Community Partnership, have said they will merge if they won the new contract to work as a single provider to run a single Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire service.
In reply, Mr Hancock said he would raise the concerns with the Head of NHS Improvement.
In an online statement Ms Smyth noted “I am concerned to see the CCG pursuing a complex legal procurement process for just some of our community services, without a clear understanding of what is required and without any attempt at cooperation with other partners who also provide vital services. This approach creates potential conflict where there should be collaboration between service providers, which is not in keeping with the national direction.”
In reply the clinical chair of the CCG Dr Jon Hayes said the 10-year contract will give the provider more stability and make it easier to invest in services. The CCG did acknowledge that should legislation be changed then its plans could alter.
The CCG’s chief executive Julia Ross noted: “Our approach to this competitive procurement, through a process of open competition, is supported by our regulators and consistent with current legislation. Of course, should the law in this area change we will adapt our plans accordingly.”
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