• NHS England to face external review of the national contracts with private sector during pandemic
  • Staff will need to “develop a narrative” around the contracts ahead of the review in September
  • “Surge” clauses triggered at 55 private hospital sites across the south of England

There will be an ‘external review’ into the national capacity contracts with the private sector during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leaked NHS England document.

It comes after HSJ revealed low utilisation rates of the contracted capacity last year, with internal data suggesting two thirds of capacity went unused in the summer months.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, NHS England has had unprecedented national contracts in place for private hospital capacity in England. The total cost has never been revealed, although public contract notices suggest they were worth around £400m per month.

According to a new document recently circulated within NHS England and obtained by HSJ, the national contracts will be subject to an external review in September.

It said: “During the response to covid-19, there have been a range of contract forms with the independent sector to provide additional capacity and activity to support the NHS to maintain the elective and cancer pathways.

“These arrangements have evolved over time from March 2020… an external review is expected in September. We will need to populate data about the utilisation of the IS from the beginning of the contracts in March 2020 ahead of this review in order to develop the narrative.”

The reasons for the review and who will carry it out are not detailed. The review may refer to one announced by the National Audit Office but this is not clear.

Throughout most of 2020, the bulk of private providers in England were on a national block contract whereby the NHS could use as much capacity as it needed.

But a new contract is now in place between January and April, offering limited capacity unless specific “surge” clauses are triggered.

As previously reported, surge clauses were triggered in parts of London in around mid-January.

The new document suggests 55 private hospital sites across London, the South East, East of England, and South West are currently in surge.

The surge clause has been requested for another seven sites, including Nuffield Health hospitals in Chester, Leeds, York and Wolverhampton.

The documents suggest there is a push to increase the number of higher priority and complex cases into the private hospitals, which means the activity levels are lower than was initially planned.

NHS England was approached for comment.

This story was updated at 9:35 to include information about the NAO review. 

 

Source

Information obtained by HSJ

Source Date

9 February

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