PCTs outsource provider arms to foundation trust
Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees teaching primary care trusts have outsourced their entire provider arms to a local foundation trust.
In what is believed to be the first move of its kind, all 856 staff were transferred to North Tees and Hartlepool foundation trust on 1 November. The trust has a contract to run the services for 17 months.
The move is controversial because of concerns that hospitals could use control of community services to increase referrals to acute care and boost their income.
But the joint chief executive of both PCTs, Chris Willis, said: "We have made it clear that we are the commissioner and that we will be defining the service model."
The PCT has stipulated that the services must be kept as they are rather than integrated into acute services.
For example, health visitors will not be integrated into the foundation's paediatric service.
The PCT has kept ownership of the property and facilities and will tender the contract in 2010.
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