Deals offer companies foothold in Yorkshire NHS care

Health chiefs are preparing to sign deals for dozens of community services across the region put out to tender under the flagship Any Qualified Provider programme.

Early details obtained by the Yorkshire Post reveal five private companies have been given a foothold in South Yorkshire in the provision of NHS-funded care as part of contracts totalling more than £1m.

In North Lincolnshire, two firms have taken a share of a service for ultrasound checks previously exclusively provided by the NHS.

High street firm Specsavers has won contracts to carry out NHS hearing tests and treatment in Wakefield, Pontefract, Castleford and Dewsbury in a move it said signalled a “revolution” in care.

Full details of contracts will be announced in coming weeks and more services will go out to tender next year under the programme condemned by Labour as the “biggest privatisation in the history of the NHS”.

Last night Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: “This Government’s real agenda for our NHS is becoming clear – privatisation at a pace and scale never seen before. Ministers are forcing Yorkshire’s successful NHS services out to the market and patients will pay the price as care fragments.”

Pam Johnson, head of health for Unison in Yorkshire, said the moves would lead to a “dangerous” fragmentation in services across a number of providers increasingly distanced from patients and people organising services, adding: “There’s no evidence it will improve services, it will be increasingly complicated for patients and there will be no transparency about the nature of the contracts because they’re commercial.”

In South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, two private firms are among nine providers given approval to deliver a £800,000 annual contract to treat people with carpal tunnel syndrome, three firms will be among 13 providers taking a share of a £325,000 24-hour heart diagnostic service contract and one will share part of a £221,000 deal carrying out checks for bowel complaints. Most deals have been signed with GP practices or firms formed by groups of GPs, with four NHS trusts also involved.

In Hull, two private firms and not-for-profit social enterprise City Health Care Partnership have won contracts for community cardiology services, with a NHS trust and the same social enterprise delivering a chronic pain service in Hull and the East Riding.

Deals are expected over community ultrasound services in Calderdale, Kirklees, Wakefield and North Yorkshire, and podiatry care in Bradford and North Yorkshire. Other services to go out to tender include psychological therapies in Calderdale, anti-blood clot services in Bradford and chronic pain care in Leeds and northern Lincolnshire.

Some services will be new to the NHS including the bowel checks in South Yorkshire and chronic pain care for neck and back problems in Leeds. But others offer private firms a chance to deliver services previously only provided by the NHS.

Ministers say the programme will give patients wider choice, driving up the quality and access to care. But the Yorkshire Post understands the bid process has been hampered by conflicting official advice over procedures amid further concerns costs could soar if demand is greater than expected. Plans to put the provision of wheelchairs out to the market are among those believed to have run into major difficulties.

Doug Hershaw, head of procurement for NHS South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, said he was confident more providers would lead to “better quality care and more choice for patients”.

He added: “The three services put out to tender under the Any Qualified Provider policy were chosen by local clinicians to build extra capacity into the system in areas where it is needed. GPs, the cancer network and the cardiology network have all been involved in the process to ensure that all three services and providers meet the national quality standards and specifications.”

Specsavers said people with hearing loss could access NHS treatment on the high street for the first time after a GP referral. It said its stores were among the first in England to undergo the “revolutionary change, offering those in the area greater choice and more convenience”.

The Department of Health said a third of approved providers were from the NHS but denied it amounted to privatisation. A spokesman added: “Having worked with patient groups and doctors, we are targeting those community services that most need to improve for patients, often crucial for their quality of life. Anyone who wishes to provide NHS care must prove that they can meet strict criteria for NHS quality.”