NHS campaigners take fight against Accountable Care contracts to Supreme Court

They have applied for permission to appeal against decisions by the High Court and Court of Appeal to reject their case against Accountable Care Organisation (ACO) contracts. The new system would be funded with a “whole population annual payment” instead of health service providers being paid a set price for services.

Action group 999 Call For The NHS, represented by law firm Leigh Day, hopes to derail the new system after challenging its legality.

Calderdale campaigner Jenny Shepherd, the named appellant in the case, said: “It costs a specific amount to provide each treatment to each patient and we are worried that the proposed contract ignores this by paying a fixed annual amount for a whole range of services for an area’s population.

“This creates a real risk that there wouldn’t be enough money to cover the costs of providing high quality treatments to all patients who have a clinical need for them.”