Image: Wikicommons
The NHS has had to pay private healthcare company Clinicenta
£53million to end a contract to run an NHS Treatment Centre in Stevenage, after
a catalogue of clinical failings and an investigation into three patient deaths
after routine surgery. The running of the centre has now been taken over by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, it was announced
this week.
It is the second time taxpayers have had to fork out
to escape a failing Clinicenta contract with the NHS. In 2011 NHS London had to
pay the company - a subsidiary of ex-Tarmac construction giant Carillion - £8million
to terminate a similar contract following an investigation
into a series of avoidable deaths.
The
Clinicenta Surgicentre in Stevenage was opened in November 2011 on the site of
the NHS Lister Hospital, to provide eye and joint operations along with trauma,
gynaecological and general surgery.
The
centre was dogged by reports of substandard care and management failings from
the start. The Care Quality Commission found the centre had “insufficient staff
to meet people’s needs”. According to local doctors, six
patients lost their sight after Clinicenta failed to invite them for follow
up checks. 8,500 patient records were lost. Up to half of patients were forced to wait more than the target maximum of 18 weeks. Last
year East and North Hertfordshire CCG suspended
all GP referrals, after the deaths of three patients following
what should have been routine, low risk procedures. Following a third failed
inspection, the Care Quality Commission began moves to revoke the centre’s
licence in February this year.
At the time the deal was announced, the value of the
Surgicentre was put at £31
million, with a further £122 million to be paid to Clinicenta over 5 years for
carrying out operations. The centre had been due to carry out around half the
NHS operations in the Hertfordshire area but the problems meant they never met
the expected level of procedures.
Asked about the £53million that the NHS is now
paying Clinicenta to escape the contract, a spokeswoman for East and North Hertfordshire NHS clinical
commissioning group claimed “The vast majority of this relates to the value of the
building and the equipment which will be retained by the NHS for use in
delivering services to patients. We are contractually bound to pay for this
even if the contract is not terminated and runs for its full term.”
The expensive collapse of this arrangement fuels
mounting concerns about whether outsourced public sector contracts provide
value for money and quality services. Last month G4S
and Serco outsourcing giants were found to be over-charging for a variety of
services. This week, a survey carried out for WeOwnIt
found that 88% of people wanted an end to private sector contracts in the case
of poor service provision.
Conservative MPs have pointed out that the
Surgicentre was one of a wave of Independent Treatment Centres signed off by
the last government. However this government too has a policy of cutting GP
referrals to hospitals and pushing treatment out into 'the community', in other
words to often privately run clinics and treatment centres. Such a policy is
likely to come under increasing scrutiny, both in terms of value and patient
safety.
Like most such smaller clinics, the Stevenage Surgicentre
did not have an intensive care unit. Although an investigation found that the
patients who had died had received adequate care, doubts remain about the
wisdom of such a policy. At the Surgicentre, patients had been transferred from
the nearby QEII hospital, and the hospital’s day surgery unit demolished and
redeveloped into flats, despite fierce opposition from local residents.
The government also continues to pursue Private
Finance Initiative schemes which tie the NHS into yet more expensive and hard
to break contracts. Clinicenta’s parent company, Carillion, is a large player in
the Private Finance Initiative scheme and in June they were selected as the ‘preferred
bidder’ for a massive £425 million new PFI scheme at the Royal Liverpool hospital.
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