30.10.12
South London hospitals could be privatised
Plans have been outlined for South London NHS Trust, including the possibility for two of the hospitals to be privatised.
On Monday morning, special administrator Matthew Kershaw revealed the plans for the failing trust, which was placed into administration three months ago following the accrual of £150m debts. Without action, the trust will accumulate a deficit of over £240m by the end of 2015, Kershaw warned.
The Princess Royal hospital could be offered to a private company, although Kershaw’s “preferred option” was for King’s College hospital trust to take it over instead.
Queen Mary’s hospital should be taken over by mental health foundation trust Oxleas, and the land sold off to pay debts, the report states. The new “health campus” would only provide care for day cases, radiotherapy and endoscopy.
Finally, Queen Elizabeth hospital could be merged with Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust.
Kershaw has called for the Government to pay the excess costs of PFI deals until the 25-year contracts expire. He said that in the long term, “the current design of services and the economy of the local health system are not safely tenable”.
The services received 39 expressions of interest, including from private companies Virgin Health, Care UK, Serco and Circle. Nine bids have been taken forward for more detailed consideration.
“The trust has the lowest income per consultant in its peer group, a very high ratio of junior doctors to consultant staff and high use of locum and agency staff,” the report warns.
Mike Farrar of the NHS Confederation said the plans were “credible and well thought out”. He added: “South London is a good example of a trust where it would be simplistic to saddle PFI schemes with the blame for all of the problem. To get to the real issues you have to dig deeper.”
Anna Dixon, director of policy at the King’s Fund thinktank, said: “South London Healthcare’s problems are complex and longstanding – the proposed solutions recommend very significant change.
“While the recommendations will undoubtedly be controversial and tough to implement, radical redesign of health services is needed in many parts of the country.”
The proposals are out to public consultation, with Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, making a decision early in the new year.
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