NHS seeks £10bn covid deal with private hospitals

The framework represents a key element of the NHS England’s plans to cope with coronavirus over winter, by outsourcing significant amounts of routine activity to independent hospitals.

Procurement frameworks effectively create a list of suppliers which have demonstrated they can meet certain criteria, and can then be called upon to deliver services when required.

NHS England will decide which suppliers qualify to be on the framework, from which local trusts and health systems can then commission services.

This replaces the system that has been in place since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, in which NHSE has block booked private capacity across the country.

Last month, a guidance document published by NHSE said: “Our intention is to move away from a national capacity contract arrangement to local commissioning for all acute independent sector services. A national call-off framework is being procured to support systems to contract for additional independent sector capacity and we expect it to be used for all activity funding by the system envelopes.”

The framework is intended to run from November 2020 to November 2024.

David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, said: “The historic partnership agreement between the NHS and independent sector has played an essential role in ensuring vital treatment can continue during the coronavirus pandemic, with the delivery of over 1.3 million NHS operations, diagnostics tests, chemotherapy sessions and consultations in independent hospitals since March.

“Independent providers remain committed to supporting the NHS and it’s right that the current partnership continues to evolve with a renewed focus on clearing the significant backlog of NHS operations, whilst also ensuring private patients can access the care they need.”

The contract notice for the “increasing capacity framework” says: “The objective of the framework agreement is to support the contracting authorities’ ability to manage reduce waiting lists by purchasing additional activity from providers of required services.

“It is for contracting authorities to determine which specialties they wish to purchase based on local need. The intention is that a framework agreement will be entered into by NHS England on behalf of all contracting authorities with each provider assessed as capable through this procurement process…

“Once the framework agreement has been set up, contracts based upon the NHS standard contract or sub-contract may be placed by a contracting authority with any provider holding a framework agreement covering the relevant services required by that contracting authority.”