Providers chosen for first comprehensive MCP contract

Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group has chosen to take forward a bid for its £5bn multispecialty community provider contract from a consortium formed of GPs in the area with four NHS trusts.

It is expected to become the first, or one of the first, instances of a contract for a comprehensive MCP.

The trusts are:

• Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust;
• The Dudley Group Foundation Trust;
• Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership Trust; and
• The Black Country Partnership FT.

According to the commissioner, the GP collaborative which has signed up to the consortium covers 41 GP practices, over a population of 289,272. 

Dudley CCG has said it will enter the competitive dialogue process for the 15 year contact in early September and hopes to have the contract in place by spring 2018 – which would make it the first MCP to go live. 

Earlier this year, Birmingham Community Healthcare, Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership and the Black Country Partnership announced that they intend to merge by October.

Paul Maubach, chief executive officer of Dudley CCG, said: “We are delighted to have a viable bidder to start the dialogue process with. This process will test out their ideas and see how well they match our vision for an organisation that will be able to deliver better integrated services designed to improve the lives of Dudley people.”

It is expected that the contract, with a total annual potential value of £363m, will be in place by spring 2018 with service delivery starting in 2018-19.