[guide.chat] news n h s run by richard branston virgincare 1 april
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2012 04:54:23 +0100
The company, part-owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, has signed a
£500 million, five-year contract to run a wide variety of community health
services in Surrey.
It is comparable in scale to the deal for Circle, the John Lewis-style private
firm, to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdonshire.
The Department of Health said patients would receive "the best care from the
best provider" but Unison warned that care would "inevitably" suffer.
Virgin Care will take over the running of Surrey Care Services, part of NHS
Surrey, the local primary care trust.
Responsibilities include running eight community hospitals, where elderly
people often recover after an operation, before being sent home.
Private firms bidding to run children's services 15 Mar 2012
Virgin Care will also proivide community nursing - helping people stay at home,
or providing end-of-life care - and health visitors for parents with young
babies.
Other services being outsourced include breast cancer screening, sexual health
clinics, specialist dental work, physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
About 2,500 NHS staff will be transferred to Virgin Care, although an NHS
Surrey spokesman said there would be "no change" to their pay and conditions.
A joint statement from NHS Surrey and Virgin Care claimed: "This is essentially
a transfer of management and follows national guidance that allows the trust to
focus on developing, buying and managing the performance of services, leaving
the provider to concentrate on delivering services."
Anne Walker, chief executive of NHS Surrey, described it as "excellent news for
patients, carers and staff".
A Department of Health spokesman said: "This is a local decision, aimed at
driving up the quality of services and enabling more innovative models of care.
"It will provide much-needed certainty for staff, and ensure that patients
receive the best care from the best provider."
However, Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, described the contract as
"more proof of the direction of travel for the NHS under the Coalition
government, which is privatisation".
He argued: "The decision to award the contract to Virgin is ideological and it
is inevitable that there will be cuts in order to ensure that shareholders get
their dividends and it will inevitably be patients that will suffer."
Until two weeks ago Virgin Care was called Assura Medical. Virgin Group has
owned a majority stake since March 2010.
Virgin Care takes over responsibility for providing the services from April 1.
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