Hinchingbrooke Hospital
| Hinchingbrooke Hospital | |
|---|---|
| Circle Health | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°19′58″N 0°12′04″W / 52.3329°N 0.2011°WCoordinates: 52°19′58″N 0°12′04″W / 52.3329°N 0.2011°W |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public NHS |
| Hospital type | General |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | Yes Accident & Emergency |
| Beds | 266 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Links | |
| Website | hinchingbrooke.nhs.uk |
| Lists | Hospitals in the United Kingdom |
Hinchingbrooke Hospital is a small district general hospital in Hinchingbrooke near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Opened in 1983, it serves the Huntingdonshire area, and has a range of specialities as well as an Accident and Emergency.[1] It has 266 beds, including 24 specifically for day cases. It was formerly administered by Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, until in 2010 it became the first NHS hospital to be run by a private company, Circle Health. Although the hospital is managed privately, the buildings are still under public ownership by the NHS. This process was widely criticised as a significant step in the privatisation of the NHS in England.[2]
Circle Health franchise
The franchise winner was announced to be Circle Health on 25 November 2010.[3] The project has been conducted by the NHS East of England Strategic Projects Team.[4] On 10 November 2011 it was confirmed that Hinchingbrooke Hospital would be administered by Circle Health from February 2012. Circle has a ten-year contract to manage the hospital, which has heavy financial debts.[5] In 2012 losses doubled, and Circle obtained a £4 million advance on fees to ease cash flow problems at the hospital.[6]
In November 2012 a National Audit Office (NAO) report into the franchise was published. It found that while Circle had made early improvements in some clinical areas, the in-year deficit was already £2.2 million higher than planned. Circle will have to generate unprecedented levels of savings to pay the deficit and most of the savings are expected in the later years of the ten-year franchise, so the value for money of the project cannot easily be assessed for some time. The NAO found that while NHS East of England had assessed bidders’ savings proposals, the relative risks had not been fully considered, which had the potential to encourage over-optimistic bids.[7][8]
According to The Daily Mail in February 2013,[9] patient satisfaction has risen dramatically to 85% and waiting times have been cut significantly. Jim O’Connell, the Chief Executive was quoted as saying "We put more of the decision-making in the hands of the doctors and nurses ... There are still a lot of inefficiencies in the NHS because it is the bureaucracy that has built up over all these years, and we have to change that."
References
- ↑ hinchingbrooke.nhs.uk, accessed 25 November 2010
- ↑ Rahman, Shibley. "The privatisation of the NHS appears to be going to plan". Socialist Health Association. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
- ↑ Nick Triggle, Private firm becomes first to run NHS hospital, BBC News, 25 November 2010
- ↑ NHS East of England Strategic Projects Team, accessed 10 December 2010
- ↑ Jeffreys, Branwen (10 November 2011). "Circle in deal to run Hinchingbrooke NHS hospital". BBC News. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
- ↑ Gill Plimmer (26 October 2012). "Privatised UK hospital in the red". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
- ↑ Jeremy Laurance (8 November 2012). "Hospital lifesaver Circle loses extra 2.2m". The Independent. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ↑ The franchising of Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust (Report). National Audit Office. 8 November 2012. HC 628. http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1213/hinchingbrooke_health_care.aspx. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ↑ Peter Campbell and Sophie Borland (23 February 2013). "Transformed: The failing NHS trust taken over by private firm has one of the highest levels of patient satisfaction". The Daily Mail.