New Contracts for local NHS Treatment
Five local clinical commissioning groups will jointly commission services currently provided by NHS treatment centres in:
Emersons Green
Cirencester
Devizes
The treatment centres came into being in November 2009 and their contracts are due to end at the end of October this year. Now South Gloucestershire, Bristol, North Somerset, Bath & North East Somerset and Gloucestershire CCGs are commissioning services that will run from November 2015.
Independent Sector NHS Treatment Centres (ISTCs), were contracts established centrally by the NHS to provide non-emergency surgery, diagnostic tests and outpatient appointments for NHS patients within the area of the CCGs. Now the five CCGs will work together to agree new contracts in order that the services which were previously provided through the ISTCs can continue when the contract expires. The new contracts will be tailored to meet local needs and will be monitored to ensure high standards of care.
The centres were designed to give NHS patients more choice about where to go for operations and procedures locally. They have provided significant extra capacity in the area, and the CCGs have recognised this as a continuing local requirement.
Dr Jonathan Hayes, Chair of South Gloucestershire CCG, which is leading the commissioning on behalf of the CCGs said said:
“The extra services have given the local NHS more capacity and given patients more choice and we are keen to be able to continue to offer these services.
The contracts will be open to NHS providers and we may see interest from partnerships and independent sector organisations.
“What we don’t know at this stage is where the new services will be provided but we will specify that they should be geographically local to the commissioning CCGs. Feedback from patients who have used the services has been positive and we are clear that more patients have been seen more quickly than if the treatment centres had not been established. The five CCGs want patients to continue to have access to extra, high quality services so that they have more choice and can be seen as quickly as possible. The centres have clearly relieved some of the burden on the acute hospital waiting lists.
We are not planning significant changes and want to commission the range of services that are currently available.”
The CCGs have announced the start of the procurement on their websites today and patients who have used the services at the treatment centres are invited to take part in a survey about their experiences and whether they can suggest improvements. The survey is open until 11 March 2015. GPs are also being asked for their feedback.
The next steps will be for the joint board of the CCGs to agree the final approach to the procurement of the services in March. Organisations will be asked to submit their application to become qualified to provide the services for the contract/s from end of March, and details of the new arrangements will be announced on the CCG websites in June, before the new services start in November.
