Private sector deal for fast-track clinics collapses
A private sector deal between the Department of Health and a Canadian-led private healthcare firm to provide private treatment centres has collapsed.
The proposals to treat NHS patients in private surgery centres are in disarray after ministers axed a preferred bidder, Anglo-Canadian, a consortium based in Calgary, Alberta.
The Department of Health revealed that it had deselected the consortium because it could not offer value for money for the three fast-track surgery centres in London. The department said it was talking to other firms and insisted that the centres would still be open as planned in April next year.
In a statement, the Department of Health said: “Anglo-Canadian have been dropped as preferred bidder for the London chain of treatment centres because their package did not represent good value for money for taxpayers.
“However, the procurement process will remain on track and we are confident that the treatment centres covered by this contract will be in place in accordance with the original timescale, by next spring.
“We are in discussions with a number of providers who are keen to provide these services under this contract. No NHS patient will be inconvenienced by this move to secure better value for money for taxpayers.”
However, the Canadian and British consortium is the second company to pull out of negotiations to run the chain of 24 centres, aimed at driving down NHS waiting times. In February, British-based Mercury Health pulled out as the preferred bidder for a group of five centres in the South East.
Health Service Journal claims that, unlike the Mercury Health deal, there is no reserve preferred bidder for the London centres.
The diagnostic and treatment centres (DTCs), announced last year, are expected to cost £2 billion over the next five years. They will carry out non-urgent surgery on NHS patients, such as knee, hip and cataract operations.
Former health secretary Frank Dobson, commented on the news: “This shows that even when cherry-picking the easiest cases to deal with these foreign firms can’t do it as cheaply as the NHS. The extra funds the government was going to pay them should be paid to NHS staff to do the work.”
Health unions have also criticised the plan to bring in overseas firms to run the centres.
Over 20 NHS-managed DTCs are already in operation, but the chain of 24 new centres marks the first time that private firms will be involved.
