The Cooperation and Competition Panel has ruled against care home associations in two regions after they claimed procurement rules and prices for continuing healthcare were too low.

The advisory body said on Monday it would not pursue the complaints brought against commissioners in the East Midlands and North West strategic health authority regions.

Care associations in each region had complained about the openness of the procurement system and pricing for NHS funded continuing healthcare.

The panel’s report said: “The care home associations argue the commissioners did [not give fair prices] by populating their pricing model with arbitrarily selected discounted figures and through adjusting these figures based on obscure local factors.”

Panel director Catherine Davies said: “The panel considers that the aspects of conduct and procurement raised in this complaint do not impose costs on patients and taxpayers. We consider the payment regimes we reviewed for continuing healthcare in the North West and East Midlands are transparent and non-discriminatory”.

Continuing healthcare is worth roughly £170m a year in the East Midlands and £244m in the North West.

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