Private company ‘to run NHS hospital’

Ministers have finalised a contract for Circle Healthcare to take over the management of the debt-ridden Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire.

Although private sector firms already operate units within the NHS – such as hip replacement centres – Circle is the first to take over an entire hospital.

The nearby Addenbrooke’s trust was originally interested in taking over Hinchingbrooke but withdrew from the bidding process.

Under the deal, which was struck under the last government, the staff and assets will remain part of the NHS and the hospital will return to full NHS control in 10 years.

Circle chief executive Ali Parsa added: “We want to create a John Lewis-style model with everyone who works there in charge of the hospital, letting them own their problems and solve them.”

He said the company would do all it could to make the hospital viable.

‘Accident waiting to happen’

Dr Stephen Dunn, from the NHS in the East of England, said the hospital would still be paid at NHS rates for its work. He described the deal as “hugely original”. He said: “We’ve managed to avoid the possibility of closing the hospital.

“We’ve got a solution to the debt and have plans that allow us to meet the efficiency challenges the NHS faces.”

But some are less convinced that putting the contract out to tender was the only way to save the hospital from closure.

Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison, told the BBC: “We just don’t accept there is no expertise within an organisation the size of the NHS, and to turn to the private sector, which has a very patchy record in delivering these kind of services, is an accident waiting to happen.”