22.06.15
Capita wins primary care support contract
Capita has been announced as the preferred bidder for the £1bn primary care support services contract.
NHS England has confirmed that Capita beat out competition from Capgemini and Equiniti. The stock market was briefed on the decision this morning.
Capita was supported on the bid by Anglian Community Enterprise – a social enterprise providing community services in north east Essex, which will work as a subcontractor to Capita.
NHS England selected Capita before the general election and the decision has now been approved by ministers at the Department of Health.
NHS England made the decision to launch an ‘open’ public procurement process for primary care support services in July 2014 after not being able to design a “viable in-house solution”.
The contract will run for seven to 10 years with a total value of £400m. The framework used to let the contract allowed for deals of up to £1bn, which at the time was one of the single largest outsourcing deals ever proposed in the NHS.
The services are currently provided in-house by NHS England at a cost of £60m a year.
NHS England will now work with Capita for six to nine weeks to discuss options for how it will manage primary care support services over the duration of the contract.
The contract still needs to be signed off by the DH and Treasury before the deal can be completed.
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