STRUCTURE: NHS Gloucestershire’s preferred option for its provider arm is an NHS trust, documents obtained by campaigners under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

A letter from health minister Simon Burns to Cotswolds MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown confirms the primary care trust’s “current preference” is “ultimately” to become a community foundation trust after first becoming an NHS trust.

The PCT was given special dispensation to consider pursuing CFT status after it was forced to abandon its plans to transfer the provider arm to a social enterprise following a judicial review brought by a service user and supported by local campaigning group Stroud Against The Cuts.

Mr Burns advises the PCT will have to ask for expressions of interest to inform the options appraisal under the terms of the judicial review settlement but would not need to launch a full competitive tendering process if it decided to pursue the NHS trust option.

Source

Letter

Source date

21 May 2012

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